False negative bone scintigraphy in a patient with primary breast cancer: A possible transient phenomenon of bisphosphonate (alendronate) treatment

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in developed countries. Bone is a frequent site of metastatic disease with a stage-dependent incidence. Most women with breast cancer are at risk of osteoporosis due to their age or their breast cancer treatment. Scintigraphy enables imaging of the entire skeleton with high sensitivity but limited specificity. The false positive rate varies from 1.6% to as high as 22%, while the false negative rate varies from 0.96% to 13%

Promoter methylation and expression changes of CDH1 and P16 genes in invasive breast cancer and adjacent normal breast tissue

We studied the promoter methylation status and expression levels of P16 and CDH1 genes in breast cancer and their adjacent normal tissues with normal control breast tissues, to correlate with their histopathological parameters. Hundred twenty four samples (tumor and adjacent nonmalignant tissues) from 62 breast cancer patients and 4 normal control breast tissues were included in the study. We used methylation specific PCR to evaluate methylation status and quantitative RTPCR to measure the gene expression levels. Methylation incidence of P16 gene and CDH1 gene in tumor tissues were 24.2 % and 33.9 %, respectively. CDH1 and P16 gene were not methylated in normal control tissues. CDH1 underexpression is found to be significant in correlation with advanced stage, histologic type, high tumor grade and lymph node involvement. P16 expression is found not to be significantly related with any histopathological parameters. But 60% of cases which overexpresses P16 were estrogen negative, and 40% of them were histologic grade 3. Both P16 and CDH1 had different expression levels in tumor tissues compared to the adjacent normal tissues and in adjacent normal tissues compared to the normal non-tumor tissues

Primary non-hodgkin lymphoma of breast in a patient with rectal carcinoma and magnetic resonance spectroscopic examination

A 62-year-old woman being treated for stage IIIC rectal. adenocarcinoma was diagnosed with primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma of the breast after a 4-year follow-up. This case illustrates the importance of close and Long-term follow-up as well as of differential diagnostic procedures for second primary malignancies after the initial diagnosis and treatment of a solid tumor. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Concentration in Normal-Weight and Obese Children

Objective: In studies on the relationship between amino-terminal propeptide of C-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proCNP) concentration and height velocity in children, CNP has been implicated as an emerging new growth marker during childhood. It has been reported that besides its well-studied role in growth, plasma CNP levels are reduced in overweight and/or obese adolescents, suggesting CNP as a potential biomarker in childhood obesity. The primary goal of this study was to test this hypothesis in a Turkish population.Methods: Consent was taken from 317 children [ages 0-18 (158 girls, 159 boys)] and their parents. All subjects were physically examined; anthropometric measurements were obtained. Body mass index was calculated. During routine blood work, 1 mL extra blood was taken. Plasma NT-proCNP concentration was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: Results confirmed the previously described relationship between plasma NT-proCNP concentration and growth velocity. Plasma NT-proCNP concentration showed a negative correlation with age, weight, and height in children. Gender was not a factor that alters the age-dependent plasma NT-proCNP concentration until puberty.Conclusion: Unlike previous reports, plasma NT-proCNP concentration of overweight/obese children was not significantly lower than that of children with normal weight in age groups analyzed in a Turkish population. Thus, it is too early to conclude that CNP is a potential biomarker in childhood obesity. Further studies are necessary to address this question