BackgroundBreast cancer is the most frequent localization of malignant process in American women and women of European countries. To date it is not possible to control the morbidity growth due to lack of effective ways of primary prevention. Comparing the incidence of breast cancer in developed countries with the countries of Asia and Africa, there is the fact of population predominance lesion in more urbanized countries. This suggests that the environment along with other factors, occupies a significant place in the initiation and progression of breast neoplasia. The impressive rates of industrial development led to the pollution of soil, surface water and, as a consequence, food by heavy metal salts.The purposes of this paper are as follows: the chemical composition determination of neoplastic breast tissue, evaluation of the DNA methylation level, study of prognostic-important receptors expression in the breast cancer cells, establishing linkages between all the derived indicators.MethodsIn our study we used the following methods: studying of the chemical composition of breast cancer tissue by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and energy-dispersion spectrometer; іmmunohistochemical study of ER, PR, HER2/neu, p53, Ki-67, E-cadherin and MGMT receptors; DNA extraction and investigation by oscillating infrared spectroscopy method.ResultsThe total amount of heavy metals in breast cancer tissue ranged from 51.21 × 10−3 to 84.86 × 10−3 μg/kg. We have got the following results: the growth of heavy metals in neoplastic tissue is accompanied with the increase of HER2/neu, p53, Ki-67, MGMT expression and decrease of ER and PR expression. The increment of pathological DNA methylation is accompanied with the increasing amount of heavy metals in tumor tissue.ConclusionsHeavy metals through different pathogenetic links stimulate the progression of breast cancer and reduce its sensitivity to treatment. DNA of tumor tissue has a different level of methylation which changes with the amount of heavy metals in cancer cells. This is displayed on the synthesis of prognostically important receptors in neoplastic tissue.

A patient with primary adenocarcinoma with yolk sac and trophoblastic differentiation occurring in Barrett's esophagus is reported. Yolk sac differentiation at this site has not been described previously. The diagnosis of germ cell differentiation initially was suggested by the finding of elevated serum tumor marker levels. The patient experienced disease remission after cytotoxic chemotherapy. Germ cell differentiation may be difficult to identify in small biopsy samples, which may not be representative of the tumor as a whole. The finding of germ cell differentiation defines therapy and predicates for a relatively good prognosis, which is in contrast to adenocarcinoma. Because of the significance of germ cell differentiation in the selection of appropriate therapy, immunostaining for germ cell tumor markers is suggested in all patients with adenocarcinoma who are younger than 50 years.

Background Although primary cancer of the fallopian tubes is a relatively rare type of tumor in female reproductive organs, its mortality is quite high. It is important to identify molecular and biological markers of this malignancy that determine its specific phenotype. Methods The study was carried out on samples received from 71 female patients with primary cancer of the fallopian tubes. The main molecular and biological properties, including hormone status (estrogen receptor [ER], progesterone receptor [PR]), human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2)/neu expression, proliferative potential (Ki-67), apoptosis (p53, Bcl-2), and pro-angiogenic (vascular endothelial growth factor) quality of serous tumors were studied in comparison with clinical and morphological characteristics. Results ER and PR expression is accompanied by low grade neoplasia, early clinical disease stage, and absence of lymphogenic metastasis (p < .001). HER2/neu expression is not typical for primary cancer of the fallopian tubes. Ki-67 expression is characterized by an inverse correlation with ER and PR (p < .05) and is associated with lymphogenic metastasis (p < .01). p53+ status correlates with high grade malignancy, tumor progression, metastasis, negative ER/PR (p < .001), and negative Bcl-2 status (p < .05). Positive Bcl-2 status is positively correlated with ER and PR expression and low grade malignancy. Conclusions Complex morphologic (histological and immunohistochemical) study of postoperative material allows estimation of the degree of malignancy and tumor spread to enable appropriate treatment for each case.

No abstract

Heavy metals (HMs) are distinguishable among various exogenous elements with a comprehensive impact and high adverse environmental consequences. The danger of their spread is accompanied by risks of entry into living organisms, leading to organ accumulation, homeostasis disruption, and the development of various inflammatory and oncological clinical manifestations. Interestingly, the uterus shows an unpredictable reaction to the influence of these chemical elements, with almost all previous studies providing differing results. Therefore, this study investigated the features of chemical element content in the rat uterus after 30 days of HMs exposure and assessed the benefits of vitamin E against HMs impacts. Spectral analysis of uterine tissue of rats (daily HMs exposure) and animals (HMs exposure with vitamin E treatment) showed a significantly higher accumulation of Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Cr after 30 days of the experiment. Although the uterus samples of rats treated with vitamin E showed a significant accumulation of HMs, it should be noted, that the tendency for their accumulation was less pronounced than in untreated rats. This study showed the accumulation features of some chemical elements in the rat uterus after 30 days of HMs exposure. Therefore, widespread environmental HMs exposure can leads to high absorption levels in uterine tissues. However, increases in HMs levels were significantly attenuated by vitamin E supplementation. Unfortunately, while a positive trend was found for each chemical element, the complete protection and purification effect of vitamin E use against HMs exposure was not observed.