Postoperative prognosis is better for hormonal receptor-positive breast cancer than for other phenotypes; however, there are no definitive predictive factors for relapse or survival. This study aimed to evaluate the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) and clinicopathological characteristics as possible predictors of postoperative relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in hormonal receptor-positive breast cancer patients. We evaluated 262 patients with Stage I–III breast cancer diagnosed as luminal type (luminal A, 166; luminal B, 96 patients) who underwent preoperative FDG-PET/CT between January 2006 and December 2011 at two institutions. The relationships among SUVmax and clinicopathological factors (age, clinical T/N stage, nuclear grade, lymph node metastasis and vascular invasion) were evaluated. A phantom study was performed to correct differences in PET/CT analysis between two institutions. The patients were divided according to the SUVmax cutoff on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for OS (≤6.0 group vs. >6.0 group, AUC = 0.742). Clinical T-factor and nuclear grade were significantly correlated with SUVmax (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0092, respectively). In the uni- and multivariate analyses using the Cox model for relapse, SUVmax was significant (p = 0.013 and p = 0.055, respectively) among characteristics. RFS curves showed that prognosis was significantly better for the SUVmax ≤ 6.0 group than for the SUVmax > 6.0 group (p = 0.004). Similarly, SUVmax was significant for OS (p = 0.007 and p = 0.008). OS was significantly different between the SUVmax ≤ 6.0 and >6.0 groups (p < 0.001). SUVmax was useful for predicting outcomes in patients with luminal-type breast cancer.

Hybrid EBCS can provide sufficient free margin, and its surgical curability is acceptable. Additionally, this method is superior to CBCS in terms of cosmetic outcome.

We investigated effects of human (h) GH on the proliferation of h-hepatocytes that had been engrafted in the liver of albumin enhancer/promoter driven-urokinase plasminogen activator transgenic/severe combined immunodeficiency disease (uPA/SCID) mice (chimeric mice). The h-hepatocytes therein were considered to be deficient in GH, because hGH receptor (hGHR) is unresponsive to mouse GH. Actually, hIGF-1 was undetectable in chimeric mouse sera. The uPA/SCID mice were transplanted with h-hepatocytes from a 6-year (6Y)-old donor, and were injected with recombinant hGH (rhGH). rhGH stimulated the repopulation speed of h-hepatocytes; and up-regulated hIGF-1, human signal transducers and activators of transcription (hSTAT) 3, and cell cycle regulatory genes such as human forkhead box M1, human cell division cycle 25A, and human cyclin D1. To confirm the reproducibility of these effects of rhGH, similar experiments were run using h-hepatocytes from a 46-year (46Y)-old donor. rhGH similarly enhanced their repopulation speed and up-regulated the expression of the abovetested genes, especially hIGF-1 and hSTAT1. The extent of the enhancement by rhGH was much less than that in 6Y-hepatocyte-chimeric mice most probably due to the difference in GHR expression levels between the two donors. In conclusion, this study clearly demonstrated that rhGH stimulates the proliferation of h-hepatocytes in vivo.

Microwave breast imaging is a painless and nonradiation method. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the detective capability and feasibility of a prototype of a portable breast cancer detector using a radar-based imaging system. Five patients with histologically confirmed breast cancers with a minimum diameter of 1 cm were enrolled in this study. The antenna array dome of the device was placed on the breast of the patient in a supine position for 15 min per single examination. The primary endpoint was a detection rate of breast cancers. The secondary endpoints were positional accuracy and adverse event. All five targeted breast tumors were detected and were visualized at the sites confirmed by other diagnostic modalities. Among five tumors, one was not detected via mammography because of heterogeneously dense breast and another was a microinvasive carcinoma of invasive tumor size 0.5 mm. No study-related adverse events occurred. The prototype of a portable breast cancer detector has sufficient detective capability, is safe for clinical use, and might detect an early stage breast cancer, such as noninvasive carcinoma. Future developments should focus on further decreasing the size of the machine and shortening inspection time.

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