Clinical utility of serum HER2/neu in monitoring and prediction of progression-free survival in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with trastuzumab-based therapies

Introduction  

The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the clinical utility of serum HER2/neu in monitoring metastatic breast cancer patients undergoing trastuzumab-based therapy and to compare these results with those obtained using cancer antigen (CA) 15-3. We also sought to determine whether early changes in serum HER2/neu concentrations could be a predictor of progression-free survival.     

Morbid obesity treated by gastroplasty: radionuclide gastric emptying studies

Mechanisms by which gastroplasty for morbid obesity causes weight loss are poorly understood. We studied the role of altered gastric emptying in 50 patients before surgery, 1-4 weeks after surgery, and 2-24 months after surgery using technetium-99m pentetate in water for liquid meals and a Tc-99m styrene divinylbenzene copolymer resin in oatmeal for semisolid meals. We determined the emptying half-times of the stomach before and after surgery in the proximal and distal compartments. The proximal compartment emptied promptly in the early and late postoperative periods. The distal compartment emptied liquids at rates similar to those before surgery, while the late postoperative emptying of semisolids was significantly faster. The stoma connecting the two compartments thus permits rapid transit of liquids and semisolids without delay of distal compartment emptying. No correlation was seen between the emptying half-times or changes thereof and eventual weight loss. Delayed gastric emptying is therefore not the mechanism for satiety and weight loss after gastroplasty has been performed.