Ring Enhancement in Non-Neoplastic Breast Tissue on MRI During Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: Incidence and Clinical Implications.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe new lesions called ring enhancement in non-neoplastic breast tissue on breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer patients, and to investigate the factors influencing their occurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 811 consecutive patients (mean age; 50.0 [range, 24-81] years) with breast cancer who had undergone NAC between January 2020 and December 2021, identifying cases with new ring enhancement on post-NAC MRI. We analyzed the MRI findings and identified factors that were potentially associated with ring enhancement through statistical analyses using the chi-square test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Forty-seven (5.8%) patients developed new ring enhancement on post-NAC MRI. The variables associated with ring enhancement were premenopausal status (p = 0.0007), younger age (p = 0.0011), high mammographic density (p = 0.0076), and high background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) on baseline MRI (p = 0.0001). Among these, high BPE was independently associated with the occurrence of ring enhancement (p = 0.0294, OR = 2.08; CI: 1.08-4.03). In a subset of high BPE patients, an association between HER2-positive cancers and ring enhancement was observed (odds ratio = 5.51 vs. 2.54). New lesion development exhibited no association with any specific NAC drug (p = 0.1676-0.7583 per drug). CONCLUSION: Ring enhancement often occurs on post-NAC MRI and mostly disappears on subsequent MRI scans. High BPE on MRI was associated with this finding and HER2-positive cancers potentiated it. Knowledge of this finding can prevent unnecessary biopsies.

Induction of intestinal ischemia reperfusion injury by portal vein outflow occlusion in rats.

BACKGROUND: Intestinal ischemia can occur from mesenteric artery (MA) occlusion and portal vein (PV) occlusion. The degree and mechanisms of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in these conditions may differ. Metabolic changes are seen early in I/R. This study compares tissue histology, inflammation, and metabolic response during small bowel I/R due to superior MA or PV occlusion. METHODS: Anesthetized male Wistar rats (250-300 g) underwent laparotomy followed by MA or PV occlusion for 40 min. After 120 min of reperfusion, small bowel tissue was collected. The expression of heat shock protein (HSP)-32 and HSP70 was evaluated to compare physiological stress responses between groups. Metabolic profiles were obtained using (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)-based quantitative metabolomics. Histological injury of small bowel was graded from 0 (normal) to 4 (extensive ischemic damage). RESULTS: Protein expression of HSP32 and HSP70 increased when compared to sham but was not different in the MA I/R and PV I/R groups. Metabolic profiles demonstrated decreased glucose levels and highly elevated tissue lactate and amino acids and fatty acids following I/R, with more pronounced changes with PV occlusion. Lipid peroxidation was equally increased in both groups, while depletion of reduced glutathione (GSH) was more severe with MA occlusion. The epithelial necrosis score was higher with MA (3.5 ± 0.6) than with PV occlusion (2.3 ± 0.8). CONCLUSIONS: Histological injury of the intestine is less pronounced following PV occlusion, most likely due to higher oxygen and substrate availability during I/R by PV occlusion. This conclusion is supported by a more pronounced metabolic synthetic response (increased glycolysis and fatty acid and amino acid accumulation) with PV occlusion, while oxidative stress was higher with MA occlusion. The inflammatory response showed little difference between the groups.

Prognostic factors for classifying extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type, as lymphoid neoplasia.

This study evaluated the applicability of prognostic factors commonly used for diagnosis of classical lymphoma outcomes to extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type (NTCL). Clinical features and their associations with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were evaluated in 70 patients. RLDH was defined as the ratio of LDH to the upper normal limit. RLDH was associated with stage (I-II vs. III-IV), lymph node involvement (LNI), and International Prognostic Index score (<2 vs. > or =2). Poor performance status and advanced stage were common in patients with local tumor invasiveness (LTI). LDH level, classified into three levels (low, high, and very high) was associated with survival (P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, the predictive values of LDH level, B symptom, performance status, and stage remained significant whereas those of LTI and LNI did not. Scoring was performed by weighting each factor with 0.5 or 1.0 according to its hazard ratio. Scores were classified into four groups. Groups with high scores were associated with unfavorable outcomes (P < 0.001). Current study suggests that prognostic factors for NHL may be useful to predict the outcome of NTCL but the model should take LDH level and the prognostic weight of each factor into account.

Prognostic factor analysis and proposed prognostic model for conventional treatment of high-grade primary gastric lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a clinical risk factors analysis to define a prognostic model for high-grade primary gastric lymphoma (HG-PGL). METHODS AND RESULTS: The median event-free survival and overall survival of 214 HG-PGL patients were 54 and 104.5 months, respectively, after a median follow-up duration of 60 months. According to the prognostic factor analysis, survival, advanced age, male gender, higher LDH levels and the presence of ascites were identified as independent prognostic factors for HG-PGL. We identified four groups at different risk: group 1, no adverse effect; group 2, one factor; group 3, two factors; group 4, three or four factors. The new prognostic model showed excellent prognostic capacity to differentiate subgroups according to their risk stratification. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed new prognostic model for HG-PGL demonstrated a balanced distribution of patients into four groups with good prognostic capacity.