Fertility drugs and breast cancer risk.

PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION: Female infertility is a widespread problem in Western countries. During past years, an association between ovarian stimulation in unfertile women and breast cancer risk has been hypothesized. OBJECTIVE: Purpose of the present investigation was to comment the most updated studies about an eventual relationship between fertility drugs and breast cancer risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors performed a review of the current literature regarding the possible association between the use of fertility drugs and the enhanced risk of breast cancer. They searched digital databases including Pubmed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. The literature search was performed using various combinations of keywords. They carefully analyzed only the full versions of all relevant studies. RESULTS: Using various combination of keywords, the authors examined 930 papers. They considered only papers written in English. With these criteria they selected the studies that had been discussed in detail on the text. CONCLUSION: None of the works commented provides an indisputable evidence about a link between ovarian stimulation and breast cancer risk. On the contrary, most of them actually suggest a lack of interaction between them or even a protective role of ovarian stimulation.

Immunogenicity of allo-vesicle carrying ERBB2 tumor antigen for dendritic cell-based anti-tumor immunotherapy.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are able to orchestrate innate and acquired immunity and can activate and sustain a long-lasting anti-tumor immune response in vivo when used as anti-tumor cell therapy. The selection of the antigen and the choice of its formulation are key points in designing anti-cancer DC-based vaccines. Cell released vesicles/exosomes have been shown to transfer antigens, HLAI/peptide complexes and co-stimulatory molecules to recipient cells. In this study we describe the generation of an allogenic microvesicle cell factory in which the expression of a specific tumor antigen was combined to the expression of co-stimulatory and allogeneic molecules. The DG75 lymphoblastoid cell line was selected as microvesicle producer and transfected with ErbB2, as tumor antigen prototype. The shed microvesicles transferred antigenic components to recipient DCs, increasing their immunogenicity. DC pulsing resulted in cross-presentation of ErbB2 both in HLAI and HLAII compartments, and ErbB2-specific CD8+ T cells from cancer patients were activated by DCs pulsed with vesicle-bound ErbB2. The microvesicle cell factory proposed may represent a source of cell free immunogen to be used for DC-based cancer therapy.

Trastuzumab in metastatic breast cancer.

Metastatic breast cancer is an incurable disease in a very high percentage of patients. Despite new progress in endocrine and other systemic therapies, this evidence remains challenging for patients and clinicians. HER2 protein is a member of the epidermal growth factor family of transmembrane receptors. HER2 is overexpressed in approximately 20% to 30% of breast cancers. Overexpression of HER2 has been shown to be associated with increased tumor proliferation and relative resistance to some types of chemotherapy and hormonal therapies. Trastuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against HER2 protein, has been shown to be an efficacious and well tolerated treatment for HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer, both as a single agent and when it is used in combination with chemotherapy.

Retroperitoneal schwannoma presenting as an ovarian tumor.

A mass in the left annexal zone was discovered in a 56-year-old woman at the Department of General Surgery and was diagnosed as ovarian cancer. After the operation the mass appeared histologically to be retroperitoneal leyiomiosarcoma and because of residual disease, confirmed by computed tomography (CT) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), complementary radiotherapy was carried out. Restaging supported the persistence of the tumor and so a second laparotomy was performed with complete tumor resection; the pathologic diagnosis was retroperitoneal benign schwannoma. The importance of careful preoperative imaging, such as echography, CT, NMR, arteriography and urography should be stressed for a correct clinical and surgical approach. Moreover, considering that in some selected clinical cases these tumors could be confused with others deriving from contiguous organs and structures, a different surgical approach may be needed together with dedicated and expert surgeons.

Anticancer treatment and fertility effects. Literature review.

Chemotherapic regimens include mutagenic agents. The risk for reproductive abnormalities is increased in patients treated with such antiblastic drugs, mostly before or during their fertile period. The effect of chemotherapy on male and female gonadal function is related to the type of used agent and their cumulative doses. Other antineoplastic approaches, such as radiation therapy or hormonal therapy, can also negatively influence fertility. In the evaluation of quality of life of people affected by malignancies, infertility is considered an important issue. For this reason a large number of options have been tested as fertility preserving strategies--many are promising but still at an experimental stage.

[Chemotherapy in the elderly patient]. / I trattamenti chemioterapici nel paziente anziano.

In the past, the clinical approach in elderly cancer patients was different than in younger ones; the natural history of neoplastic disease and the chemotherapy-related toxicity were the main reasons for this behaviour, and frequently over 65 years patients were excluded from chemotherapeutic treatments and from clinical trials. In the last years, according to clinical data, this approach changed and now there is evidence that also old patients (70-80 ys) can be treated with full dose chemotherapy, on condition that no poor performance status and no severe associated disease are present. Nevertheless, because of the increasing number of cancer patients with advanced age, in future it will be necessary to optimize the antineoplastic treatments individualizing chemotherapy and improving the clinical surveillance in this subset of patients. Moreover it will be strategic to identify optimal schedules of treatment in elderly cancer patients.