Western blot of primary breast cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs).

<p>CAFs are derived from patients with ERα-positive breast cancer and have been cultured in serumfree media to allow detection of basal ERK phosphorylation levels (lower band: ERK2 42kDa, upper band: ERK1 44kDa).</p

Kaplan-Meier plots.

<p>Recurrence-free survival according to CAF-pERK level (A-C) and CAF-SMAα expression (D-F) of patients in cohort I (ERα-positive patients). Plots represent prognostic (A, D) or tamoxifen treatment-predictive information (B, C and E, F) (<i>P</i>-value: Univariate Cox regression, HR: Hazard Ratio, CI: Confidence Interval, RFS: Recurrence-Free Survival).</p

Prognostic and molecular parameters.

1<p>Mann-Whitney <i>U</i>,</p>2<p>Pearson’s chi-square,</p>3<p>Spearman.</p><p>Distribution of CAF-pERK staining categorization according to clinico-pathological and molecular characteristics. (CAF: Cancer-associated fibroblasts, percentages in parenthesis).</p

Diode laser to treat small oral vascular malformations: A prospective case series study

The current work examined a consecutive series of patients presenting vascular malformations (VMs) and venous lakes (VLs) of the lip and oral mucosa who were treated with transmucosal diode laser applications and assessed over a 1 year period. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Fifty-nine patients (31 males and 28 females) presenting low-flow VMs or VLs of the oral cavity were treated transmucosally using a diode laser (with an 830 nm operating wavelength and 1.6 W output power) with a 320 µm diameter flexible fiber. All the lesions were assessed 7 days, 30 days, and 1 year after the laser treatment, and the lesion reduction percentage was scored on a one to five scale. The patients were also asked to assess their pain perception daily during the 7 days following the treatment using a visual analog scale (VAS). RESULTS: There were no procedure-related intra- or post-operative complications; only modest pain intensity was reported. Thirty days after the treatment, lesion reduction was described as excellent or good in 52 cases; it was fair or poor in 7. Six patients (F:M ratio 2:4) required a second diode laser application. At the 1 year follow-up, volume reduction was complete in 48 out of 59 patients; there were five recurrences (F:M ratio 3:2). No relevant gender-related differences were noted. CONCLUSION: The use of diode laser application to treat small oral VMs and VLs was associated to shorter operating times and fewer postoperative complications with respect to the scapel surgery approach. More than one session may nevertheless be required if the anomaly is larger than 10 mm

MiR-92a expression in normal breast and breast cancer samples.

<p><i>A)</i> and <i>B)</i> Two examples of miR-92a expression in normal breast tissue compared to tumour areas.</p

Recurrence-free survival among breast cancer patients according to miR-92a expression.

<p><i>A)</i> Tumours were divided into four groups based on the staining intensity of miR-92a and recurrence-free survival for the patients was determined, <i>p</i> = 0.065. <i>B)</i> Recurrence-free survival analysis after merging of tumours in Q1–Q2 and Q3–Q4, <i>p</i> = 0.008.</p

Inverse link between CD68-positive macrophages and miR-92a expression.

<p>Tumours were divided into quartiles based on number of CD68-positive cells (macrophages) and compared to miR-92a staining intensity.</p

Distribution of miR-92a expression in breast cancer tumours according to clinico-pathological parameters.

†<p>Correlations were calculated using Spearman's ρ(two-sided) unless otherwise specified. <i>P</i> values were not adjusted for multiple testing.</p>‡<p>Kruskal-Wallis test (two-sided).</p

Univariate Cox proportional hazard regression model of the risk of recurrence according to clinico-pathological factors and miR-92a expression.

<p>NHG = Nottingham Histological Grade; ER = estrogen receptor; HR = hazard ratio; CI = confidence interval.</p

Validation of miR-92a <i>in situ</i> hybridization probe.

<p><i>A)</i> Downregulated of miR-92a in MDA-231 cells was validated and confirmed by qRT-PCR. <i>B)</i> Detection of miR-92a using <i>in situ</i> hybridization in MDA-231 cells after downregulation of miR-92a. Lower panel shows the definition of positive pixels identified by the digital image analysis program. <i>C)</i> Quantification of positive pixels by the image analysis program.</p