BACKGROUND: Locally advanced breast carcinoma is associated with a poor prognosis. With single treatment modalities, i.e., surgery and/or radiation therapy, results have been consistently dismal. However, several earlier reports have indicated improvement in survival with a combined modality approach, i.e., the utilization of systemic therapy.METHODS: Between 1991 and 1994, 128 patients with local

In a previous preoperative study of patients with gliomas, we made the original observation that patients with high grade as opposed to those with low-grade gliomas have a psychological profile marked by extreme emotional reactivity. In this postoperative study of the psychological profiles of patients with breast cancer, the main funding was unexpectedly analogous with the findings in the brain t

Three projective personality tests were used to assess attitude to aggression (The Identification Test), anxiety and defenses (The Meta-Contrast Technique) and creative functioning (The Creative Functioning Test) in 70 patients with breast cancer. Discriminant analyses were applied pro primo to characterize psychologically patients with a better prognosis and patients with a poorer prognosis. A se

Specific causes of death, survival, and recurrence rates were assessed in a cohort of 60 patients who had undergone surgery for craniopharyngioma between 1951 and 1988. Compared to the general population, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was increased [5.55; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.68-8.22], and it was higher among females (SMR, 11.4) than males (SMR, 4.79). The risk of cardio- and c

Most lichens of the family Teloschistaceae (Ascomycota) produce yellow-orange-red anthraquinone pigments. However, the genus Pyrenodesmia encompasses species in which anthraquinones are absent and replaced by a gray pigment Sedifolia-gray. It was shown recently that these species are related to taxa with both anthraquinones and Sedifolia-gray (Caloplaca xerica group, C. haematites group, and C. crMost lichens of the family Teloschistaceae (Ascomycota) produce yellow‐orange‐red anthraquinone pigments. However, the genus Pyrenodesmia encompasses species in which anthraquinones are absent and replaced by a gray pigment Sedifolia‐gray. It was shown recently that these species are related to taxa with both anthraquinones and Sedifolia‐gray (Caloplaca xerica group, C. haematites group, and C. cr

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy drug distribution varies greatly among individual patients. Therefore, we developed an individualised fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide (FEC) regimen to improve outcomes in patients with high-risk early breast cancer. We then did a randomised trial to compare this individually tailored FEC regimen with conventional adjuvant chemotherapy followed by consolidation w

Aim: Surgery is an important therapeutic option for Crohn's disease. The need for first bowel surgery seems to have decreased with the introduction of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi; adalimumab or infliximab). However, the impact of TNFi on the need for intestinal surgery in Crohn's disease patients irrespective of prior bowel resection is not known. The aim of this work is to compare the

Objectives: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a very common condition in the primary healthcare settings. Few studies have investigated whether sociodemographic factors are related to UI. This nationwide study aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between sociodemographic factors and UI in women. Methods: A nationwide open cohort study included 2,044,065 women aged 15–50 years. Several n

Epilepsy is a severe neurological disease characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS). A complex pathophysiological process referred to as epileptogenesis transforms a normal brain into an epileptic one. Prevention of epileptogenesis is a subject of intensive research. Cur-rently, there are no clinically approved drugs that can act as preventive medication. Our previous studies have reve

Climate change — the ultimate challenge of our time: COVID-19 pandemic aside, climate change is the ultimate challenge of our time. However, to date, there has been insufficient political thrust to make that much-needed climate action a reality. Climate change and infectious diseases: Infectious diseases represent only one facet of the threats arising from climate change. Direct impacts from clima

p53 is a transcription factor that participates in cell cycle checkpoint processes and apoptosis. The protein product of the murine double minute gene 2 (mdm-2) plays a central role in the regulation of p53. In response to DNA-damaging agents, the wild-type p53-activated fragment 1 (WAF1 also known as p21) is an important downstream effector in the p53-specific growth arrest pathway. In breast can

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of two alternative chemotherapy regimes on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with advanced breast cancer. In a multicentre trial, 283 patients were randomised to receive either docetaxel (T) or sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (MF). QoL was assessed at baseline and before each treatment using the European Organization for Research

AIM: We aimed to study the importance of erbB2 status in early stage postmenopausal breast cancer for patients who participated in a trial of five vs. two years of adjuvant tamoxifen.PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analysed the erbB2 status of the tumours from 577 patients participating in the trial, either by a DNA amplification assay (n = 181) or by measurement of the protein level with flow cytometry

S-phase fraction (SPF) is a reference for cell-kinetic analysis. In this study, the links between SPF and the essential enzymes participating in the pyrimidine synthesis were investigated in breast cancer and their relationships with the natural history of the disease were compared. We measured thymidine kinase (TK) for salvage synthesis, thymidylate synthase (TS) for de novo synthesis and thymidy

AIM OF THE STUDY: To produce an empirical estimate of the nature and magnitude of the error produced by incorrect timing quality of life (QoL) measurements in patients receiving chemotherapy.DESIGN: In a multicentre trial, 283 patients were randomized to receive either docetaxel (T) or sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (MF). The QoL was assessed at baseline and before each treatment using

Background: Diffusion-weighted imaging plays a key role in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of breast tumors. However, it remains unclear how to interpret single diffusion encoding with respect to its link with tissue microstructure. The purpose of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to use tensor-valued diffusion encoding to investigate the underlying microstructure of invasive ductal ca

Biomicrofluidic devices and organ-on-a-chip (OOC) systems with integrated membranes are often fabricated from two different thermoplastic materials but bonding of such dissimilar thermoplastics remains challenging to manufacture at scale. Here, we present a method to bond poly(methylmethacrylate) layers to a polyethylene terephthalate porous membrane to create membrane-based microfluidic devices f

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women. Although the prognosis generally is good, a substantial number of patients still suffer from relapse, emphasizing the need for novel treatments. Smac mimetics were developed to facilitate cell death by blocking inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). It has been suggested that TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) c

The car is one of the most expensive household consumer goods, yet there is a limited understanding of its private (internal) and social (external) cost per vehicle-km, year, or lifetime of driving. This paper provides an overview of 23 private and ten social cost items, and assesses these for three popular car models in Germany for the year 2020. Results confirm that motorists underestimate the f