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Two groups of patients were chosen from among 4,025 subjects examined in a breast screening program, one consisting of patients with stage I and the other of patients with stage IV breast cancer, characterized by neoplastic recurrence. In this comparison p53, HER and grading are of no direct help. We investigated receptor status at the time of the first operation and after complete surgical excision of the recurrence. The following variables were determined: oestrogen and progesterone receptor measures (ER, PR) in f.mol/ml, the 4 receptor phenotypes, the oestrogen-progesterone ratio and histological tumour grading in relation to oestrogen receptor positivity or negativity. Surgery consisted in quadrantectomy or total mastectomy, with axillary dissection or complete surgical excision of the recurrence. Adjuvant therapy was administered. The results show a different receptor percentage in recurrence compared to early breast cancer, which though not significant, indicates a reduced presence of ER+ PR+, ER- PR-, and an increase in the ER+PR- phenotype. Recurrence occurs more frequently when the lesion at the first operation is more advanced and if radiotherapy has not been included in the treatment. Histological grading shows a greater number of undifferentiated cells and a reduction in ER+ in recurrence, thus indicating a reduced target for the most widely used hormone treatments. The oestrogen-progesterone ratio is significantly increased (P < 0.01) in recurrence compared to stage I cancers. The cause of recurrence is a neoplastic embolism, often documented histologically. Recurrence does not necessarily mean a poor prognosis, because there is a survival rate after two years of 77% of the cases treated. These results obtained with widely used methods show the aggressiveness of some breast tumours, which can evolve and have a very poor prognosis even with the most complete therapy.

Pseudolymphomas are a group of lymphoproliferative disorders which are difficult to classify and diagnose. They can affect several anatomical sites and, among these, a mammary localisation is considered rather rare. Pseudolymphomas of the breast carry an excellent prognosis, and no case of malignant degeneration has ever been described. On the contrary, cutaneous pseudolymphomas, which are considered very low-grade lymphomas by some authors, are actually able to progress to overt cutaneous lymphomas in a minority of cases. The authors present three cases of periareolar pseudolymphoma of the breast. The first two were characterised by the presence of an elevated serum antibody titer to Borrelia, and were therefore diagnosed as lymphocytoma cutis, a disorder affecting 0.6-1.3% of patients with Lyme's disease. Both cases had a benign clinical course, as confirmed by the negative follow-up after more than three years. On the contrary, the third pseudolymphoma, classifiable as an idiopathic form, relapsed locally after ten years, thus testifying to the benign nature of the lesion, but also demonstrating that the lymphoproliferative process may still be active after a long period of time. The last case emphasizes the need for long-term follow-up of these patients.

The aim of this paper was o study the long-term changes induced in the rat as a consequence of a 90% resection of small intestine. At 6 months after operation the surviving rats were stable and showed: hypoproteinemia, hyperlipemia, and a decrease of bile flow, total lipids, and cholesterol of bile. What residual intestine concern there was an increase in length and size, and decreased transit time; stomach, duodenum and colon too showed increase size. Histologically there was hypertrophy of villi, regressive changes of pancreas and kidney, as well as deposit of iron in the kidney. The reasons for these changes are discussed.

A number of total colectomies with end-to-end ileo-rectal anastomosis was performed in the inbred Lister rat. The following data were studied: survival rate, body weight curves, variations of appetite, thirst and diuresis, daily weight and electrolytes content of feces, intestinal transit time, histology of terminal ileum, rectum, liver and kidney. After an initial lose of body weight, rats gained their original weight at about two months after colectomy; at this time a syndrome was observed caracterized by anemia, leucocitosis with neutrophilia, ipoproteinemia, remarkable increase of thirst (up to 400%) and of water and sodium content of feces; appetite and diuresis were normal; intestinal transit tice was slightly reduced. Histologically there was a "coloni" transformation of the terminal ileum and vacuolization of the proximal renal tubules.