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S Tommasi

Publications and source records attributed to S Tommasi.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Metastatic site and p53 primary tumor expression in previously untreated stage IV breast cancer patients.

p53 mutations have been reported to correlate with prognosis and response to therapy in patients with different tumor types. However, although p53 status is related to the primary tumor aggressiveness, an association between its expression and specific metastatic pattern has not yet been investigated. We immunohistochemically analyzed p53 (Pab1801) and ki67 (mib1) primary tumor expression in a series of advanced breast cancer patients presenting a selected pattern of distant metastases at the time of first diagnosis. Forty-eight percent of the overall series was classified as p53 positive while 22% as mib1 positive tumors. The overall agreement between p53 and mib1 expression was statistically significant (p = 0.03). While mib1 primary tumor expression did not show any association with the type of metastasis, p53 positivity was significantly higher in patients with soft tissue metastasis than in patients with bone or viscera metastasis (p = 0.002). No association with the probability of clinical response or different overall survival was found for patients with different p53 or mib1 status either in the overall series of patients or in subgroups of cases with different sites of distant metastasis.

Bone Neoplasms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prognostic relevance of ploidy and proliferative activity evaluation by flow cytometry in poor prognosis non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

The DNA content and S-phase fraction (SPF) of pathological paraffin-embedded lymph node tissue from 47 patients with poor prognosis non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). Fifteen of 42 evaluable cases proved to be aneuploid. The DNA aneuploidy was not correlated with age, histology, stage, presence of systemic symptoms, clinical response or overall survival (OS) of patients. Mean SPF evaluated in 35 cases was 22.9%. After 78 months of follow-up, nine patients with diploid low SPF tumors had a significantly longer disease-free survival (DSF) with respect to the group of patients (33 cases) with aneuploid or diploid high SPF tumors (100% vs 59%; log rank test, p = 0.04).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Use of human chondrocyte cell cultures to identify and characterize reactive antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis sera.

OBJECTIVE: To study the reactivity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sera with human chondrocyte populations isolated from normal cartilage and expanded in vitro. METHODS: Human articular chondrocytes were cultured as adherent (non-differentiated) cells on plastic dishes or in suspension (differentiated) on dishes previously coated with a thin layer of 1% agarose. Sera from 28 RA patients and 5 paired synovial fluids were tested on lysates from chondrocytes and fibroblasts as control by immunoblot. Antigen expression on the cell membrane was evaluated by flow cytometry in a few sera. RESULTS: In 9/28 RA sera IgG antibodies specific for chondrocyte antigens (97 kDa, 74 kDa, 67 kDa, 60 kDa, 54 kDa, 48 kDa and 37 kDa) were detected. Twelve sera reacted with proteins expressed both on chondrocytes and fibroblasts and 7 with fibroblasts only; two sera had no reactivity. When lysates from adherent or suspension chondrocytes were compared, RA sera reacted with higher intensity and detected more antigens on chondrocytes cultured in suspension. Flow cytometry assay demonstrated that RA sera are able to recognize antigens expressed on the cell membrane of the human chondrocytes. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that: a) 32% of the RA sera contain antibodies reactive with antigens expressed exclusively by chondrocytes, but this value rises to 75% if antigens expressed both by chondrocytes and fibroblasts are considered; b) the reactivity of fully differentiated chondrocytes in suspension culture is higher than the reactivity of chondrocytes cultured in monolayer; and c) some of the chondrocyte-specific antigens identified are associated with the chondrocyte membrane. Thus, in vitro cultured chondrocytes may be used to study both the specificity and the biological activity of autoantibodies in RA.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Biological correlation between HER-2/neu and proliferative activity in human breast cancer.

HER-2neu alterations (amplification and overexpression), proliferative activity (3H-Thymidine-Labeling Index, 3H-Tdr-LI) and tumor ploidy (flow-cytometry) were analyzed in a human breast cancer series. Overexpressed tumors showed a significantly higher median 3H-Tdr-LI than normally expressed (p = 0.04), as also did amplified/overexpressed with respect to non-amplified/normally expressed (p less than 0.04). These differences were confirmed only in N-primary tumors. In fact, high expressed cases demonstrated a median 3H-Tdr-LI of 5.5% with respect to 1.9% for low expressed cases (p = 0.04) and amplified/overexpressed had a 3H-Tdr-LI of 9% with respect to 2% for non amplified/low expressed (p = 0.009). HER-2/neu alterations were not correlated with tumor DNA content.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Receptor assessment of primary breast carcinoma and synchronous metastatic lymph nodes: histochemical study].

Several AA, utilizing the biochemical method (DCC) showed the presence or absence of hormonal receptor in either synchronous or metachronous metastatic nodes (N) can reproduce the receptor assessment (AR) of the primary breast tumor (T). We evaluated the AR in T and in synchronous N, by using two morphological methods, immunocytochemical and histofluorescent, to detect the nuclear Estrogen Receptor (ER1) and cytoplasmic sites of the II type (ER2 and PgR2). We studied 50 patients who underwent radical mastectomy for breast cancer N+. In this series we founded a high correlation between AR in T and in N: 82% for ER1, 94% for ER2, and 92% for PgR2. Also we observed 4 cases (2 ER1 and 2 PgR2) which presented the receptor in N only. These data are comparable to results obtained with the DCC method and confirm the opportunity to perform also morphological techniques to evaluate AR in breast cancer to take into consideration also cellularity and tumor heterogeneity informations.

Adult↗