Echocardiographical evaluation of mean pulmonary artery pressure in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

We compared Dopplerographic methods and invasive assessment of mean pulmonary artery pressure (MPAP) in 20 men with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We demonstrated possibility of evaluation of mean pulmonary artery pressure by Doppler methods of calculation using diastolic gradient of pressure of pulmonary regurgitation and ratio of flow acceleration time in right ventricular outflow tract and ejection time. In patients with COPD overestimation of MPAP is possible especially in patients with pronounced elevation of MPAP. Methods of evaluation of MPAP based on measurements of intervals of pulmonary blood flow do not allow to adequately evaluate MPAP in patients with COPD.     

The distribution pattern of ERα expression,ESR1 genetic variation and expression of growth factor receptors: association with breast cancer prognosis in Russian patients treated with adjuvant tamoxifen

Identification of additional biomarkers associated with ER genomic and nongenomic pathways could be very useful to distinguish patients who will benefit from tamoxifen treatment. The aim of this study was to analyze the prognostic significance of the distribution pattern of ERα expression, ESR1 gene single-nucleotide polymorphisms and expression levels of growth factor receptors in Russian hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant tamoxifen. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples from 97 patients were examined for the distribution pattern of ERα expression, as well as for EGFR and TGF-βR1 expression by immunohistochemistry. Genotypes for ESR1 +30T>C (rs2077647) and ESR1 2014G>A (rs2228480) were analyzed using a TaqMan assay. Progression-free survival (PFS) was used as an endpoint for the survival analyses. We found that patients with the heterogeneous distribution of ERα expression had poor prognosis on tamoxifen treatment (P = 0.021). We identified a high EGFR expression in patients who developed distant metastasis or recurrence during tamoxifen treatment (a tamoxifen-resistant group—TR) in contrast to the distant metastasis-free patients (a tamoxifen-sensitive group—TS) (80.0 vs. 41.9 %, respectively, P = 0.009). Carriers of the ESR12014A mutant allele were more prevalent among the TR patients compared to the TS patients (26.3 vs. 8.0 %, respectively, P = 0.009). EGFR expression and the distribution pattern of ERα expression were associated with the response to tamoxifen by both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The presence of these markers either alone or in combination was correlated with the worse PFS for all patients. Analysis of the distribution pattern of ERα expression and the EGFR status in tumor tissue may be valuable for patient selection for tamoxifen adjuvant therapy.     

Impact of estrogen receptor α on the tamoxifen response and prognosis in luminal-A-like and luminal-B-like breast cancer

Clinical and Experimental Medicine - The luminal-A-like and luminal-B-like breast cancer groups have distinct biological features that lead to differences in the treatment response and clinical...     

Carcinogenic effect of an antitumor drug etoposide in laboratory animals

Intravenous injection of antitumor drug etoposide in the maximum tolerated dose was followed by the development of breast cancer in 38.1% female Wistar rats and 6.7% female outbred mice. __________ Translated from Byulleten’ Eksperimental’noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 144, No. 11, pp. 568–571, November, 2007     

The Rarity of Metastasis to the Spleen — a Phenomenon with an Unknown Mechanism

Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine - The review analyses the frequency of malignant tumors metastasizing to the spleen. The facts are presented of a higher frequency of metastasis to the...     

Epigenetic aspects of early lymphogenic metastasis in breast cancer

Metastasizing is one of the key stages in tumor development. Understanding this process is necessary for effective diagnosis, therapy and prediction of clinical outcome. Some recent data suggest the possibility of metastatic phenotype cells appearance at the early stages of tumor evolution in contravention with generally accepted hypothesis of linear metastatic process development. In this study we have performed a comparative analysis of the array-based DNA methylation profile in biopsy samples of patients with benign breast disorders, breast cancer and lymphogenous metastases. In some cases the biopsy samples dated back to different stages of the same tumor. For the analysis the GoldenGate Methylation Cancer Panel I was used. The DNA methylation level in 1,505 CpG-sites was similar in samples from patients with benign breast disorders and lymphogenous metastases. Our data support the hypothesis of the early appearance of cell clones responsible for the tumor limphogenous dissemination. Epigenetic component apparently plays an important role in this process.