A rare case of invasive ductal carcinoma within a fibroadenoma of the breast in a 42-year-old woman is reported. The patient had a well-defined mass, measuring 6.0 x 5.0 cm, in the upper lateral quadrant of the left breast. Physical examination suggested fibroadenoma. Ultrasonography and mammography revealed some malignant findings. Needle biopsy demonstrated fibroadenoma. Frozen section revealed invasive ductal carcinoma, scirrhous type, arising in a fibroadenoma; muscle-preserving mastectomy was performed. Only 16 cases of carcinoma within a fibroadenoma of the breast have been reported in the literature in Japan. Carcinoma in a fibroadenoma should be treated on the basis of the therapeutic criteria for ordinary carcinoma.

We report a case of a 42-year-old female with occult breast cancer presenting axillary nodal metastasis. She complained of a swelling of the right axillary lymph node, but no breast mass was palpable. Biopsy of the lymph node was performed and histological examination showed a metastatic ductal carcinoma with papillotubular formation. Estrogen receptor of the lymph node was positive. No pathological findings were obtained by mammography and ultrasonography and systemic examinations revealed no extramammary primary lesion. All these data suggested an occult carcinoma of the breast and modified radical mastectomy was performed. Pathological findings of the removed specimen failed to find the primary breast cancer lesion. The patient has been treated with hormonal therapy and she is well without evidence of disease 5 years after surgery.

BackgroundWe conducted a multicenter phase II trial to assess the suitability of three types of chemotherapy (docetaxel plus S-1, irinotecan plus S-1, or S-1 alone) for patients with advanced gastric cancer by means of the collagen gel droplet embedded culture-drug sensitivity test (CD-DST). To our knowledge, this is the first multicenter clinical trial that has employed CD-DST to choose anticancer agents for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.MethodsSubjects (n = 64) were patients with advanced or recurrent gastric cancer. Patients were allocated to one of the treatment regimens on the basis of CD-DST results. Outcome of the patients was compared between the groups deemed chemosensitive or chemoresistant by the CD-DST.ResultsThirty-three patients showed high sensitivity (T/C ratio <60 %) to at least one type of anticancer agent (sensitive group), and 31 showed low sensitivity (T/C ratio ≥60 %) to all agents (resistant group). Specifically, the 1-year survival rate was significantly higher in the sensitive group (78.5 %; 95 % CI, 67.2–94.7 %) than in the resistant group (54.7 %; 95 % CI, 38.7–74.3 %; P = 0.019), whereas time to progression (TTP) was significantly longer in the sensitive group (59.8 %; 95 % CI, 48.2–81.7 %) than in the resistant group (30.0 %; 95 % CI 13.6–46.4 %; P = 0.023). Median survival time was also significantly longer in the sensitive group (15.5 months; 95 % CI, 12.8–18.2) than in the resistant group (12.5 months; 95 % CI, 10.2–14.9; P = 0.038).ConclusionsCD-DST predicts the outcome of patients undergoing chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer, presumably through evaluating chemosensitivity.

To determine the potential role of the transcriptional factor‐activating enhancer‐binding protein‐2β (TFAP2B) in the regulation of expression of adipokines, adiponectin, leptin, and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) in vivo, we quantified the mRNA expression levels of these adipokines and TFAP2B in visceral (omental) and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissues of 66 individuals with variable degree of adiposity and studied their correlations with BMI and their plasma concentrations. We found that BMI correlated negatively with plasma adiponectin levels and positively with those of leptin. Adiponection mRNA expression in subcutaneous fat correlated negatively with BMI, whereas leptin mRNA levels in the omentum correlated with plasma leptin levels and BMI. In contrast, IL‐6 mRNA levels in subcutaneous and omental fat did not correlate with BMI. IL‐6 mRNA levels in the omental fat correlated with plasma IL‐6 levels. Whereas TFAP2B mRNA expression did not correlate with BMI, it correlated negatively with adiponectin expression in the subcutaneous adipose tissue. Furthermore, TFAP2B mRNA expression correlated negatively with leptin and positively with IL‐6 expression in both subcutaneous and omental adipose tissues. These relationships are consistent with our in vitro observations and indicate that TFAP2B seems to regulate the expression of various adipokines in vivo.