HER2-negative breast cancer with activating mutations can benefit from HER2-targeted therapies. Meanwhile, mutations in the HER2 kinase domain might be a key mechanism of resistance to HER2-targeted therapy, and irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as neratinib may offer alternative treatment options. Clin Cancer Res; 22(19); 4859-69. ©2016 AACR.

ObjectiveStudies have indicated that p53 protein accumulation exerts an adverse effect on the survival of breast cancer patients; however, the prognostic value of p53 protein accumulation for aromatase inhibitor (AI) resistance in ER-positive breast cancer is uncertain.MethodsThe expression level of p53 protein was detected by immunohistochemistry in primary early-stage ER-positive breast tumor specimens from 293 postmenopausal breast cancer patients who received first-line AI treatment (letrozole, anastrozole, or exemestane) until relapse, and analysis was performed to determine whether expression of p53 protein affected the response to endocrine therapy.ResultsOf the 293 invasive ductal carcinomas, 65.4% were positive for p53 protein expression. All patients received AI therapy as first-line treatment until relapse. The 5-year disease-free survival rates in p53-positive and p53-negative patients were 78% and 89%, respectively. Patients with primary breast tumors that had p53 protein accumulation showed significantly more resistance to AI treatment (hazard ratio=1.729, 95% confidence interval=1.038–2.880, P=0.035).ConclusionThis study demonstrated that p53 protein accumulation was helpful in choosing patients who may benefit from AI treatment and is a prognostic marker in ER-positive early-stage breast cancer.

A PP membrane prepared via TIPS using CO/SO as environmentally friendly binary diluents to remove low-concentration CO2 from RO effluent water.

Background: To determine the potential value of serum tumor markers in predicting pCR (pathological complete response) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively monitored the pro-, mid-, and post-neoadjuvant treatment serum tumor marker concentrations in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (stage II-III) who accepted pre-surgical chemotherapy or chemotherapy in combination with targeted therapy at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between September 2011 and January 2014 and investigated the association of serum tumor marker levels with therapeutic effect. Core needle biopsy samples were assessed using immunohistochemistry (IHC) prior to neoadjuvant treatment to determine hormone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2), and proliferation index Ki67 values. In our study, therapeutic response was evaluated by pCR, defined as the disappearance of all invasive cancer cells from excised tissue (including primary lesion and axillary lymph nodes) after completion of chemotherapy. Analysis of variance of repeated measures and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed for statistical analysis of the data. Results: A total of 348 patients were recruited in our study after excluding patients with incomplete clinical information. Of these, 106 patients were observed to have acquired pCR status after treatment completion, accounting for approximately 30.5% of study individuals. In addition, 147patients were determined to be Her-2 positive, among whom the pCR rate was 45.6% (69 patients). General linear model analysis (repeated measures analysis of variance) showed that the concentration of cancer antigen (CA) 15-3 increased after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in both pCR and non-pCR groups, and that there were significant differences between the two groups (P=0.008). The areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of pre-, mid-, and post-treatment CA15-3 concentrations demonstrated low-level predictive value (AUC=0.594, 0.644, 0.621, respectively). No significant differences in carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or CA12-5 serum levels were observed between the pCR and non-pCR groups (P=0.196 and 0.693, respectively). No efficient AUC of CEA or CA12-5 concentrations were observed to predict patient response toward neoadjuvant treatment (both less than 0.7), nor were differences between the two groups observed at different time points. We then analyzed the Her-2 positive subset of our cohort. Significant differences in CEA concentrations were identified between the pCR and non-pCR groups (P=0.039), but not in CA15-3 or CA12-5 levels (p=0.092 and 0.89, respectively). None of the ROC curves showed underlying prognostic value, as the AUCs of these three markers were less than 0.7. The ROC-AUCs for the CA12-5 concentrations of inter-and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the estrogen receptor negative HER2 positive subgroup were 0.735 and 0.767, respectively. However, the specificity and sensitivity values were at odds with each other which meant that improving either th...

The structural optimization and the frequency for chitosan monomer, chitobiose and chitotriose with the quantum chemistry abinitio HF and the density functional B3LYP method by choosing 6-311 + G (d, p) as the basis set were calculated and studied. For its three rotational isomers, gauche-trans (gt), gauche - gauche (gg), and trans-gauche (tg), the calculations comparatively were performed respectively. The charge distribution and frontier molecular orbit were analyzed by using the method of natural bond orbital (NBO). The calculated IR spectrum was compared with the experimental data. The results showed that the three rotational isomers gt, gg, and tg can stably existed in chitosan with the stability order gg﹥gt﹥tg. Its highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) was provided primarily by nitrogen atom and its lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) was provided mainly by the oxygen atom; Its reaction active sites were concentrated in -NH2 and –OH. The calculated infrared spectra were in good agreement with the experimental values.

The density functional theory (DFT) calculations explored the structural optimization and the frequency of N-carboxymethyl chitosan (N-CMCS) and O-carboxymethyl chitosan (O-CMCS). For the isomers, the calculations comparatively were performed. The charge distribution and frontier molecular orbit were analyzed by using the natural bond orbital (NBO) method. The results showed: the two rotational isomers a and b can stably exist, with the stability order a>b; N-carboxymethyl chitosan reaction active sites are concentrated in -OH and -NHCH2COOH, while O-carboxymethyl chitosan reaction active sites are concentrated in -NH2 and -CH2COOH; The water-soluble mechanism of carboxymethyl chitosan was investigated deeply, on the one hand, the presence of carboxymethyl of carboxymethyl chitosan had a tendency to ionize H+, on the other hand the carboxymethyl increased the distance and weakened the hydrogen bonds between molecules, even though Einstein shift H-bond is formed in the carboxymethyl chitosan molecules.

Precious metal Pd are widely used in high-tech industries due to their scarcity and special properties. In this paper, 2-methylimidazole zinc salt (ZIF-8)/PVDF hybrid membrane was successfully synthesized by self-assemble method. The effect of polyarcylic acid sodium (PAAS) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) as complexing agents was investigated. The rejection rate of hybrid membrane under different polyelectrolyte-metal complexing ratios and their extraction performance under different concentration were examined.

This article proposes a normalization multi-layer perception (NMLP) geometry classifier to autonomously determine the optimal four femtocell evolved Node Bs (FeNBs), which can use time difference of arrival (TDOA) to measure the location of the macrocell user equipment (MUE) with the lowest GDOP value. The iterative geometry training (IGT) algorithm is designed to obtain the training data for the NMLP geometry classifier. The architecture of the proposed NMLP geometry classifier is realized in the server of the cloud computing platform, to identify the optimal geometry disposition of four FeNBs for positioning the MUE located between two buildings. Six by six neurons are chosen for two hidden layers, in order to shorten the convergent time. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by means of numerical simulations. In addition, the simulation results also show that the proposed method is particularly suitable for the application of the MUE positioning with a huge number of FeNBs. Finally, three quadrilateral optimum geometry disposition decision criteria are analyzed for the validation of the simulation results.