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In recent years, immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy surgery has steadily increased in the treatment pathway of breast cancer (BC) patients due to its potential impact on both the morpho-functional and aesthetic type of the breast and the quality of life. Although recent studies have demonstrated how recent radiotherapy techniques have allowed a reduction of adverse events related to breast reconstruction, capsular contracture (CC) remains the main complication after post-mastectomy radio-therapy (PMRT). In this study, we evaluated the association of the occurrence of CC with some clinical, histological and therapeutic parameters related to BC patients. We firstly performed bivariate statistical tests and we then evaluated the prognostic predictive power of the collected data by using machine learning techniques. Out of a sample of 59 patients referred to our institute, 28 patients (i.e., 47%) showed contracture after PMRT. As a result, only estrogen receptor status (ER) and molecular subtypes were significantly associated with the occurrence of CC after PMRT. Different machine learning models were trained on a subset of clinical features selected by a feature importance approach. Experimental results have shown that collected features have a non-negligible predictive power. The extreme gradient boosting classifier achieved an area under the curve (AUC) value of 68% and accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity values of 68%, 64%, and 74%, respectively. Such a support tool, after further suitable optimization and validation, would allow clinicians to identify the best therapeutic strategy and reconstructive timing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Clinical characteristics combined with new biomarkers help discriminate between atypical uterine smooth muscle tumors (AUSMT) and leiomyosarcomas (LMS). Patients and Methods: We retrospectively collected a series of leiomyomas (LM), AUSMT, and LMS. Estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), p16, Ki-67, and p53 expression were assessed by immunohistochemistry. For AUSMT patients, immunohistochemistry evaluations were performed at the time of diagnosis and at recurrences. Results: A total of 27 cases of AUSMT, 22 LM, and 31 LMS were identified. The expression of ER and PR decreased from LM to LMS (ER+: LM 95.5%, AUSMT 88.9%, LMS 41.9%, p < 0.001; PR+: LM 100%, AUSMT 88.9%, LMS 38.2%, p = 0.002). By contrast, p16 and p53 expression increased (p16+: LM 4.5%, AUSMT 40.7%, LMS 45.2%, p = 0.004; p53: LM 9.1%, AUSMT 33.3%, LMS 58.1%, p = 0.001). At a median follow-up of 33.47 months, 40.7% of patients with AUSMT experienced recurrent disease, 6 patients relapsed as AUSMT and 5 as LMS. In univariate analysis was observed that ER status (p = 0.027) and p53 expression (p = 0.015) predicted risk of relapse. Conclusions: Treatment of AUSMT should be centralized in dedicated centers. International collaborations are needed to optimize research strategy, which may lead to the identification of new useful biomarkers and to improvement in the clinical management of this rare disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dietary inflammatory indexTM (DII) has been shown to correlate with concentrations of several inflammatory markers and a variety of chronic disease endpoints, including cancers of various anatomic sites. We investigated whether the DII was associated with the risk for death among women with breast cancer (BrCa). This retrospective cohort study included 1453 women with BrCa, diagnosed between 1990 and 1994, and previously enrolled in a case–control study in northern Italy. With a median follow-up of 12·6 years, we observed 503 deaths, among which 398 were due to BrCa. The usual diet was assessed at BrCa diagnosis using a validated FFQ. DII scores were calculated using thirty-one foods/nutrients. Hazard ratios (HR) of death from all causes or from BrCa, with corresponding 95 % CI, were calculated using the Cox models, adjusted for age at diagnosis, tumour stage, oestrogen/progesterone receptor status and other potential confounders. The median DII score of the study women was −1·23, with a relatively narrow range (interquartile range −2·24 to −0·11), indicating a mainly anti-inflammatory diet. There was no difference in survival according to DII tertiles, neither considering all-cause mortality (HRtertile III v. I 1·00; 95 % CI 0·78, 1·28) nor BrCa-specific mortality (HRtertile III v. I 0·97; 95 % CI 0·73, 1·27). Study findings did not suggest an association between the inflammatory potential of diet, measured by the DII, and the survival of BrCa women. However, further studies are needed in populations reporting higher DII scores and a broader range of variability in the scores. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: Several nutrients act as phytoestrogens, being anti-adipogenic when consumed with a fat-rich diet. Their effect on a low-fat diet (LFD) background is unknown. We tested soy and genistein effects on adipose tissue in LFD-fed mice and genistein activity in the 3T3-L1 adipogenesis model. Methods: C57BL/6 J male mice were fed an 8.5 % soy-supplemented LFD (SS-LFD) or a soy-free LFD (SF-LFD) for 147 days. Groups of 3-week-old (pubertal) and 6-week-old (adult) mice on the SF-LFD were also treated with 17ß-estradiol (E2, 5 µg/kg/day) ip or pure genistein (5 mg/kg/day) by gavage for 15 days. Body fat deposition and gene expression profiles were evaluated. E2 and genistein effects on ERα, ERβ and PPARγ transcriptional activities were characterized in ERα- or ERβ-transfected 3T3L1 cells during differentiation, by the use of reporter plasmids. Results: The SS-LFD group increased fat mass compared with the SF-LFD group. Genistein alone increased while E2 decreased fat pads in the 15-day-treated mice. In visceral fat, genistein differentially regulated 13 metabolic pathways compared to E2. PPARγ-controlled genes were downregulated by E2, while they were upregulated by genistein. In 3T3-L1 cells, genistein activated ERβ-driven transcription, differentiation and lipid accumulation, while inhibited ERα-driven transcription, without effects on lipid accumulation. E2 activated both ERs only in preadipocytes. In differentiated untransfected cells, genistein inhibited PPARγ, while activated PPARγ in the presence of ERβ. Conclusions: Soy and genistein at nutritional doses induce fat development in LFD-fed mice and adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells, with a mechanism that involves, at least in vitro, ERβ and is dependent on cell differentiation stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have reported that markers in the estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) and estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) genes are associated with litter size in pigs, even if inconsistent results have been obtained in different populations. We analysed the ESR1 PvuII and the ESR2 AF164957:c.949G>A polymorphisms in Italian Large White (ITLW) sows to evaluate if these markers are associated with number of piglets born alive at first litter (NBA1). First, both polymorphisms were genotyped by selective genotyping in a total of 440 sows chosen according to the extreme and divergent estimated breeding value (EBV) for NBA1 (220 sows with low EBV and 220 sows with high EBV). For the ESR1 polymorphism, no allele and genotype frequency differences were observed between the two groups (allele A=0.62 and allele B=0.38 in both two groups). For the ESR2 polymorphism, a trend of different allele frequency between the two tails was identified (P=0.052). However, no significant association between the same ESR2 marker and EBV NBA1 was detected analyzing 1772 ITLW sows (allele A=0.59 and allele G=0.41). As the two investigated polymorphisms were not associated with NBA1 EBVs, they seem not useful for marker assisted selection to improve this trait in the ITLW breed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: In patients of Black African ethnicity, breast cancer is reportedly characterized by aggressive, poorly differentiated phenotype(s). To highlight possible differences between breast cancer in indigenous sub-Saharan African and European patients, two breast cancer case series, from Central Sudan (Khartoum) and Northern Italy (Milan), were compared for clinicopathological characteristics, expression of oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), Her-2/neu, basal cytokeratin (CK) 5/6 and CK17, and breast cancer subtypes. Methods and results: After careful antigen retrieval, 114 and 138 consecutive formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) breast cancer cases from the Radiation and Isotope Centre (Khartoum) and from MultiMedica (Milan), respectively, were screened by immunohistochemistry for ER, PR, Her-2/neu, CK5/6 and CK17. Compared with the Italian patients, the Sudanese patients were younger ( P < 0.0001) and their tumours were larger ( P < 0.0001), more advanced in stage ( P < 0.00001), higher grade ( P < 0.00001) and more frequently positive for nodal metastases ( P < 0.00001). ER expression varied between the two series ( P < 0.0008), but no significant differences were found for PR ( P < 0.32), combined hormone receptors ( P < 0.12), Her-2/neu ( P < 0.09), CK5/6 ( P < 0.1), CK17 ( P = 0.4), combined basal CK status ( P = 1) or breast cancer subtypes ( P = 0.12). Conclusion: The differences between the Sudanese and Italian breast cancer series reflect stage at diagnosis rather than intrinsic biological characteristics. This may have relevant implications for breast cancer prevention and treatment in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NCCN Guidelines recommend BRCA genetic testing in individuals with a probability >5% of being a carrier. Nonetheless, the cost-effectiveness of testing individuals with no tumor family history is still debated, especially when BRCA testing is offered by the national health service. Our analysis evaluated the rate of BRCA pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants in 159 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients diagnosed ≤60 years, and 109 luminal-like breast cancer (BC) patients diagnosed ≤35 without breast and/or ovarian family histories. In TNBC patients, BRCA mutation prevalence was 22.6% (21.4% BRCA1). Mutation prevalence was 64.2% ≤30 years, 31.8% in patients aged 31–40, 16.1% for those aged 41–50 and 7.9% in 51–60 s. A total of 40% of patients with estrogen receptors (ER) 1–9% were BRCA1 carriers. BRCA detection rate in early-onset BCs was 6.4% (4.6% BRCA2). Mutation prevalence was 0% between 0–25 years, 9% between 26–30 years and 6% between 31–35 years. In conclusion, BRCA testing is recommended in TNBC patients diagnosed ≤60 years, regardless of family cancer history or histotype, and by using immunohistochemical staining <10% for both ER and/PR. In luminal-like early-onset BC, a lower BRCA detection rate was observed, suggesting a role for other predisposing genes along with BRCA genetic testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mytilus galloprovincialis female specimens were collected from two mussel farms located in two sites next to Castel dell'Ovo, a historical complex located in the Naples Bay. Such sites were named, respectively, A-area and B-area for the different microbiological parameters so that mussels from A-area can be sold without purification, whereas mussels from B-area must be purified before sale. The mussels were collected during the nonreproductive (summer 2009) and reproductive periods (autumn 2009). Gonadosomatic index, structural organization of the ovary, presence of apoptosis, estrogen receptors expression, as well as the bisphenol A (BPA) content in the ovaries, were evaluated. Ovaries from specimens collected in area B showed a different and significant distribution of the investigated biomarkers as well as of BPA content in respect to those measured in the A-area specimens, confirming that mussels are valid sentinel organisms to biomonitor in the Naples bay too., (© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The article presents a study that investigates on the effectiveness of the new method used to identify food additives. The scientists from Italy conducted the study which uses the concept of xenoestrogens to screen the presence of food additives to eliminate its effect on health. Scientists Pietro Cozzini administered the research by allowing xenoestrogens to bind with the estrogen receptors (ER) subtypes to trigger a biochemical reaction for gene transcription. The scientists reveals that the study identify the other unrecognized xenoestrogens found in preservatives, fats and oils that could spoil the foods.