Comparative functional histopathology of human breast carcinoma xenografts.

A series of xenografts of human breast carcinomas has been established and serially transplanted in immune-suppressed mice. Certain structural and functional features of the original human tumours, including carcinoembryonic antigen and epithelial membrane antigen, continue to be expressed by the resulting xenografts. Stromal responses such as elastosis and oestrogen-receptor activity were lost by the xenografts. No metastases were detected in tumour-bearing mice. This study suggests that xenografts may have some value in experimental pathology as one type of model of human breast carcinoma

Tamoxifen, aminoglutethimide and danazol: effect of therapy on hormones in post-menopausal patients with breast cancer.

Gonadotrophins, oestradiol, androstenedione, testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHAS) were measured sequentially in 72 patients with advanced breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy of various types. Tamoxifen significantly reduced gonadotrophins but did not effect other hormones. Danazol also reduced gonadotrophins. Aminoglutethimide (AGT) reduced oestradiol and DHAS but had not effect on gonadotrophins. The effects of administering tamoxifen, AGT and danazol together (TAD) together were therefore examined. This combination reduced gonadotrophins, oestradiol and DHAS, but no further than tamoxifen and AGT alone. The degree and duration of hormone suppression were similar in both responders and non-responders to tamoxifen, AGT or TAD, though patients responding to AGT showed more complete suppression at the end of the course of treatment, perhaps because they were treated longer. On relapse, adequate gonadotrophin and steroid suppression was demonstrated in patients receiving tamoxifen and AGT respectively. We conclude that (a) response to endocrine therapy is unlikely to be related to the degree of endocrine suppression produced by the therapy; (b) combination endocrine therapy does not further reduce serum-hormone concentrations and (c) relapse is unlikely to be due to escape from the hormone-inhibitory effects of endocrine agents

A Roadmap for Improving the Impact of Anti-Ransomware Research

Ransomware is a type of malware which restricts access to a victim’s computing resources and demands a ransom in order to restore access. This is a continually growing and costly threat across the globe, therefore efforts have been made both in academia and industry to develop techniques that can help to detect and recover from ransomware attacks. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current landscape of Windows-based anti-ransomware tools and techniques, using a clear, simple and consistent terminology in terms of Data Sources, Processing and Actions. We extensively analysed relevant literature so that, to the best of our knowledge, we had at the time covered all approaches taken to detect and recover from ransomware attacks. We grouped these techniques according to their main features as a way to understand the landscape. We then selected 15 existing anti-ransomware tools both to examine how they fit into this landscape and to compare them by aggregating their accuracy and overhead – two of the most important selection criteria of these tools – as reported by the tools’ respective authors. We were able to determine popular solutions and unexplored gaps that could lead to promising areas of anti-ransomware development. From there, we propose two novel detection techniques, namely serial byte correlation and edit distance. This paper serves as a much needed roadmap of knowledge and ideas to systematise the current landscape of anti-ransomware tools

Trends in design of ransomware viruses

The ransomware nightmare is taking over the internet impacting common users,small businesses and large ones. The interest and investment which are pushed into this market each month, tells us a few things about the evolution of both technical and social engineering and what to expect in the short-coming future from them. In this paper we analyze how ransomware programs developed in the last few years and how they were released in certain market segments throughout the deep web via RaaS, exploits or SPAM, while learning from their own mistakes to bring profit to the next level. We will also try to highlight some mistakes that were made, which allowed recovering the encrypted data, along with the ransomware authors preference for specific encryption types, how they got to distribute, the silent agreement between ransomwares, coin-miners and bot-nets and some edge cases of encryption, which may prove to be exploitable in the short-coming future

ESCAPADE: Encryption-type-ransomeware: system call based pattern detection

Encryption-type ransomware has risen in prominence lately as the go-to malware for threat actors aiming to compromise Android devices. In this paper, we present a ransomware detection technique based on behaviours observed in the system calls performed by the malware. We identify and present some common high-level system call behavioural patterns targeted at encryption-type ransomware and evaluate these patterns. We further present our repeatable and extensible methodology for extracting the system call log and patterns

Neoadjuvant letrozole in postmenopausal estrogen and/or progesterone receptor positive breast cancer: A phase IIb/III trial to investigate optimal duration of preoperative endocrine therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent years, preoperative volume reduction of locally advanced breast cancers, resulting in higher rates of breast-conserving surgery (BCS), has become increasingly important also in postmenopausal women. Clinical interest has come to center on the third-generation nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitors (AIs), including letrozole, for such neoadjuvant endocrine treatment. This usually lasts 3–4 months and has been extended to up to 12 months, but optimal treatment duration has not been fully established.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study was designed as a multicenter, open-label, single-arm, exploratory phase IIb/III clinical trial of letrozole 2.5 mg, one tablet daily, for 4–8 months. The primary objective was to investigate the effect of neoadjuvant treatment duration on tumor regression and BCS eligibility to identify optimal treatment duration. Tumor regression (by clinical examination, mammography, and ultrasound), shift towards BCS eligibility, and safety assessments were the main outcome measures. Standard parametric and nonparametric descriptive statistics were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Letrozole treatment was received by 32 of the enrolled 33 postmenopausal women (median (range): 67.0 (56–85) years) with unilateral, initially BCS-ineligible primary breast cancer (clinical stage ≥ T2, N0, M0). Letrozole treatment duration in the modified intent-to-treat (ITT; required 4 months' letrozole treatment) analysis population (29 patients) was 4 months in 14 patients and > 4 months in 15 patients. The respective per-protocol (PP) subgroup sizes were 14 and 11. The majority of partial or complete responses were observed at 4 months, though some beneficial responses occurred during prolonged letrozole treatment. Compared with baseline, median tumor size in the ITT population was reduced by 62.5% at Month 4 and by 70.0% at final study visit (Individual End). Similarly, in the PP population, respective reductions were 64.0% and 67.0%. Whereas initially all patients were mastectomy candidates, letrozole treatment enabled BCS (lumpectomy) in 22 ITT (75.9%) and 18 PP (72.0%) patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Over half of patients become BCS-eligible within 4 months of preoperative letrozole treatment. While prolonged treatment for up to 8 months can result in further tumor volume reduction in some patients, there is no clear optimum for treatment duration. Letrozole has a favorable overall safety and tolerability profile.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00535418.</p

Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy in primary breast cancer: indications and use as a research tool

Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy has been increasingly employed in clinical practice to improve surgical options for postmenopausal women with bulky hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Recent studies indicate that tumour response in this setting may predict long-term outcome of patients on adjuvant endocrine therapy, which argues for its broader application in treating hormone receptor-positive disease. From the research perspective, neoadjuvant endocrine therapy provides a unique opportunity for studies of endocrine responsiveness and the development of novel therapeutic agents