Evaluation of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in primary breast cancer using PET

Abstract #4019

Purpose
 To estimate the usefulness of PET scan to assess the response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, PET scan results were compared with conventional imaging modalities(US and MRI).
 Patients and Methods
 Fourty-one patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy between December 2004 and March 2008 were included. PET scan was performed before and after chemotherapy. Pathologic results were classified into two groups; pathological complete response(pCR) and non-pCR. Clinical responses were assessed with the results of imaging modalities such as post-chemotherapy size or pSUV(postTx), size difference between treatment(delta) and reduction rate(RR) of size or pSUV, and they are compared with postoperative pathologic results.
 Results
 7 out of 41 patients (17.1%) had pCR. The results of US shows that postTx size (1.7±1.5cm) of pCR was not dfferent from those of non-pCR (3.6±3.0cm), and the delta (3.1±1.9cm) and RR (67.7±29.1%) of pCR were higher than those of non-pCR (1.3±1.3cm, 31.0±25.4%), respectively. As a result of MRI, postTx size, delta, RR of pCR was differ from those of non-pCR (1.0±1.7cm vs 2.8±1.7cm p<0.05; 4.5±1.0cm vs 2.3±1.8cm, p<0.05; 88.0±20.8% vs 44.6±24.7%, p<0.01). In PET scan, only postTx pSUV of pCR was differ from that of non-pCR (1.4±1.3 vs 5.3±8.3cm, p<0.05). As a result of receiver operating characteristic curve analyses for the prediction of pathological response of breast cancer, area under curve values (95% confidence interval) of US, MRI, PET for delta were 0.83(0.69∼0.98), 0.91(0.80∼1.01), 0.62(0.38∼0.86), and those of RR were 0.80(0.60∼0.99), 0.90(0.77∼1.02), 0.72(0.47∼0.96), respectively
 Conclusions
 We suggest that MRI is useful method to evaluate the response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Although PET scan shows less effective for evaluating the response of chemotherapy than MRI, PET scan with the ability to detect the distant metastatic lesions may be helpful to decide the proper management plans for advanced breast cancer.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 4019.

A novel laboratory cultivation method to examine antibiotic-resistance-related microbial risks in urban water environments

Although microbial risk due to antibiotic-resistant microbes in water has been a serious public health concern, the current culture-dependent detecting methods using nutrient-rich conditions may not be suitable for evaluating microbial risk. In the present study, a novel cultivation method was developed to detect antibiotic-resistant microbes at various nutrient levels. A nutrient-rich medium Luria-Bertani broth (LB) was diluted at a wide range of dilution factors (10(0)-10(4)) and amended with either tetracycline or vancomycin. A standard environmental cultivation medium, R2A, was also used by amending with antibiotics. The diluted LB with antibiotics was able to detect previously known oligotrophic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in drinking water and swine manure samples, respectively. These results validate the capability of the new method to detect antibiotic-resistant microbes in various environmental water samples. Using the developed method in assessing microbial risk due to antibiotic-resistant microbes in river and municipal wastewater plants, we found that the viable counts and antibiotic resistance fraction were significantly influenced by the type and concentration level of antibiotic exposure and the cultivation medium conditions. This suggests a further need to standardize cultivation method procedures, to assess microbial risk in water samples.

Impact of helical computed tomography in clinically evident appendicitis

OBJECTIVES

To determine the utility of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in patients with clinically evident acute appendicitis and to compare the test characteristics of overall clinical impression, Alvarado scores, and MDCT in suspected appendicitis.

METHODS

A prospective observational cohort study was conducted in two urban emergency departments (ED). Consecutive patients with suspected acute appendicitis were clinically evaluated by an emergency physician who was asked to determine whether appendicitis was clinically evident or not. Elements of the Alvarado scores were collected and all patients then underwent MDCT and a decision to operate, observe, or discharge the patients was made by a surgeon. The final diagnosis was based on surgical pathology or clinical follow-up. The test characteristics of clinical impression, Alvarado scores and MDCT were then calculated and the rates at which acute appendicitis was falsely diagnosed based on clinical impression and MDCT were compared using McNemar's test.

RESULTS

Of 157 study patients, 71 were considered to have clinically evident appendicitis before MDCT and 91 had findings of acute appendicitis on MDCT. 19 of the 71 patients with clinically evident appendicitis did not have appendicitis. 14 of 52 patients with an Alvarado score > or = 8 also did not have appendicitis. Three of 91 patients with acute appendicitis based on MDCT did not have appendicitis. The specificities of clinical impression and Alvarado score > or = 8 were 71.6% and 79.1%, respectively, and these were significantly lower than that of MDCT (95.5%, p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

The performance of abdominal MDCT in patients with a high degree of clinical suspicion for acute appendicitis reduces the number of false positives and has the potential to reduce negative appendectomies.

Targeting steroid hormone receptors for ubiquitination and degradation in breast and prostate cancer

Proteolysis targeting chimeric molecules (Protacs) target proteins for destruction by exploiting the ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system of eukaryotic cells. We designed two Protacs that contain the peptide 'degron' from hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha, which binds to the Von-Hippel-Lindau (VHL) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, linked to either dihydroxytestosterone that targets the androgen receptor (AR; Protac-A), or linked to estradiol (E2) that targets the estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha; Protac-B). We hypothesized that these Protacs would recruit hormone receptors to the VHL E3 ligase complex, resulting in the degradation of receptors, and decreased proliferation of hormone-dependent cell lines. Treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cells with Protac-B induced the degradation of ERalpha in a proteasome-dependent manner. Protac-B inhibited the proliferation of ERalpha-dependent breast cancer cells by inducing G(1) arrest, inhibition of retinoblastoma phosphorylation and decreasing expression of cyclin D1, progesterone receptors A and B. Protac-B treatment did not affect the proliferation of estrogen-independent breast cancer cells that lacked ERalpha expression. Similarly, Protac-A treatment of androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells induced G(1) arrest but did not affect cells that do not express AR. Our results suggest that Protacs specifically inhibit the proliferation of hormone-dependent breast and prostate cancer cells through degradation of the ERalpha and AR, respectively.

Phase I study of proteasome inhibitor bortezomib plus CHOP in patients with advanced, aggressive T-cell or NK/T-cell lymphoma

The aim of the study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and safety of the combination of bortezomib and cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone (CHOP) as first-line therapy in advanced, aggressive T-cell lymphoma. Patients received increasing doses of bortezomib on days 1 and 8 (weekly schedule, 1.0, 1.3, and 1.6 mg/m(2)/dose) in addition to 750 mg/m(2) cyclophosphamide, 50 mg/m(2) doxorubicin, 1.4 mg/m(2) vincristine on day 1 and 100 mg/day prednisolone on days 1 to 5, every 3 weeks. Six cycles of therapy administered every 21 days were planned. Thirteen patients, who had stage III/IV chemonaive aggressive T-cell lymphoma, received a total of 55 cycles of treatment. One patient experienced hematologic dose-limiting toxicity (grade 4 neutropenia associated with febrile episode) at the 1.0 mg/m(2)/dose of bortezomib. There was no dose-limiting non-hematologic toxicity. The MTD was not reached at 1.6 mg/m(2) dose level of bortezomib. The overall complete remission rate in all patients was 61.5% (95% confidence interval = 31.6-86.1). Bortezomib can be safely combined with CHOP chemotherapy and constitutes an active regimen in advanced-stage, aggressive T-cell lymphoma patients. The recommended dose for subsequent phase II studies of bortezomib plus CHOP is 1.6 mg/m(2)/dose of bortezomib on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks as first-line treatment.

Simulating (electro)hydrodynamic effects in colloidal dispersions: smoothed profile method

Previously, we have proposed a direct simulation scheme for colloidal dispersions in a Newtonian solvent (Phys. Rev. E 71, 036707 (2005)). An improved formulation called the "Smoothed Profile (SP) method" is presented here in which simultaneous time-marching is used for the host fluid and colloids. The SP method is a direct numerical simulation of particulate flows and provides a coupling scheme between the continuum fluid dynamics and rigid-body dynamics through utilization of a smoothed profile for the colloidal particles. Moreover, the improved formulation includes an extension to incorporate multicomponent fluids, allowing systems such as charged colloids in electrolyte solutions to be studied. The dynamics of the colloidal dispersions are solved with the same computational cost as required for solving non-particulate flows. Numerical results which assess the hydrodynamic interactions of colloidal dispersions are presented to validate the SP method. The SP method is not restricted to particular constitutive models of the host fluids and can hence be applied to colloidal dispersions in complex fluids.