Evolving treatments and outcomes in HER2-Positive metastatic breast cancer: Data from the GIM14/BIOMETA study

Background: Treatment for HER2-positive (+) metastatic breast cancer has improved in the last decade. We analyzed treatment changes over time and their impact on patients outcomes in a real-world dataset. Methods: Data from 637 HER2+ patients with metastatic breast cancer enrolled in the multicenter Italian GIM14/BIOMETA study were retrieved. Progression-free survival (PFS) over time was evaluated according to the type of anti-HER2 therapy, disease onset (de novo vs. relapsing), metastatic site, and year of treatment (2000–2013 vs. 2014–2020). Results: Median follow-up was 64.4 months. Overall, for first-line therapies, mPFS was 16.5 vs 19.5 months for patients treated in 2000–2013 vs 2014–2020 (HR: 0.78, 95% CI:0.65–0.94, P = 0.008). mPFS improved over time in all patients except for those with brain metastasis. Interestingly mPFS was 17.4 vs13.4 months (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.13–1.98, P = 0.005) in 2000–2013 and 24.4 vs 20.9 months (HR 1.04; 95% CI 0.78–1.40 p = 0.77) in 2014–2020 in pts without vs with liver metastases. For second line therapies, the overall median PFS was 9.6 months (95% CI, 8.31–10.97) and did not change over time. Conclusion: Median first-line PFS improved since 2014, mainly due to the introduction of pertuzumab. The outcome of patients with liver metastases appears to have improved in recent years. Patients with brain metastases had the worst PFS, which also did not improve over time

Dilepton Spectra from Decays of Light Unflavored Mesons

The invariant mass spectrum of the $e^{+}e^{-}$ and $\mu ^{+}\mu ^{-}$ pairs from decays of light unflavored mesons with masses below the $\phi (1020)$-meson mass to final states containing along with a dilepton pair one photon, one meson, and two mesons are calculated within the framework of the effective meson theory. The results can be used for simulations of the dilepton spectra in heavy-ion collisions and for experimental searches of dilepton meson decays.Comment: 73 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables, REVTeX, new references adde

A Nested Case-Control Study of Intrauterine Exposure to Persistent Organochlorine Pollutants in Relation to Risk of Type 1 Diabetes

BACKGROUND: The incidence of type 1 diabetes in Europe is increasing at a rate of about 3% per year and there is also an increasing incidence throughout the world. Type 1 diabetes is a complex disease caused by multiple genetic and environmental factors. Persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs) have been suggested as a triggering factor for developing childhood type 1 diabetes. The aim of this case-control study was to assess possible impacts of in utero exposure to POPs on type 1 diabetes. METHODOLOGY/ PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The study was performed as a case-control study within a biobank in Malmö, a city located in the Southern part of Sweden. The study included 150 cases (children who had their diagnosis mostly before 18 years of age) and 150 controls, matched for gender and day of birth. 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-153) and the major DDT metabolite 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis (p-chlorophenyl)-ethylene (p,p'-DDE) were used as a biomarkers for POP exposure. When comparing the quartile with the highest maternal serum concentrations of PCB-153 with the other quartiles, an odds ratio (OR) of 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42, 1.27) was obtained. Similar results was obtained for p,p'-DDE (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.29, 1.08). CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that in utero exposure to POPs will trigger the risk for developing type 1 diabetes was not supported by the results. The risk estimates did, although not statistically significant, go in the opposite direction. However, it is not reasonable to believe that exposure to POPs should protect against type 1 diabetes

A metrological SPM for dimensional surface measurements

none2and Proceedings of the 6th Italian Conference on Sensors and Microsystems; 5-7 February 2001, Pisa; ed. C. Di Natale, A. D'Amico, P. Dario; World Scientific, 209-213 (2001)Picotto, G.; Pisani, M.Picotto, Gianbartolo; Pisani, Marc

A novel AC current source for capacitance-based displacement measurements

A 100 kHz bandwidth ac current source suitable to be used with capacitive sensors in displacement measurement applications has been designed and constructed, The high-output impedance of the source is obtained by sensing the load voltage with a buffer stage having very low input capacitance, The sensing-buffer power supply, its shield, and the input shielding connections are driven at the buffer input potential in such a way that the effect of all input parasitic admittances, including the buffer common-mode impedance, are almost suppressed. The load impedance variations. which are directly proportional to displacements, are monitored by the output voltage of the sensing buffer, Measurements made at different frequencies with calibrated capacitance loads ranging from (1 to 20) pF have shown that the load-impedance values are proportional to the output voltage of the sensing buffer with a linearity better than 4 x 10(-4) and resolution of about 3 x 10(-5) over a 1 kHz bandwidth of load variation signal, The features of the current source and its performance in a displacement measurement application are described

A multi-electrode plane capacitive sensor for displacement measurements and attitude controls

A novel, multi-electrode capacitive sensor has been designed, realized and tested at INRiM (Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica). The circular active electrode of a guarded plane-parallel capacitive sensor is sub-divided into four sectors of equal area. The four output signals from each independent sensor are acquired, normalized and summed, to obtain the displacement. Similarly, by a combination of summing and differencing, the tip and tilt between the relative electrodes can be determined. An angular sensitivity up to 70mV/μrad with a noise level of approximately 85 μV Hz−1/2 has been achieved with a working distance of 50μm. The angular sensitivity decreases to a few mV/μrad for plate separations larger than 200μm. The measuring electronics was set for a full-scale displacement range of several hundreds of micrometers

STM tips fabrication for critical dimension measurement

In this contribution a method is described for sharpening Tungsten (W) tips through a two-step electrochemical etching. In the first step, under strong reaction conditions, we obtain a long hyperbolic cone, while in the second with a micropositioner we bring only the apex of the first cone in contact with a thin film of etchant. In this way, controlling the meniscus height with an optical microscope, only the very end of the tip is etched. Some processing parameters such as the rate of the electrochemical reaction of erosion of the W wire, related to the electrolyte concentration and to the applied voltage, the length of the wire immersed in the solution and the shape of the meniscus have been investigated. Both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) were tested, observing two different ways of W wire erosion. The fabrication process provides very sharp tips, tips with radius of curvature below 10nm and cone angle aperture within 30° have been obtained in some cases. Further improvements are in progress, namely to extend the tip-shape repeatability as given by the two-step process. Some promising STM images of diffraction gratings have been obtained using tips fabricated with this process