Anti-17 alpha-OH-Progesterone polyclonal antibody

Objective: Rare disease Background: Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast (NECB) is very rare, accounting for 0.1% of all breast tumors and less than 1% of all neuroendocrine tumors. Most NECBs are hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2)-negative and more than 50% are the luminal B subtype. Because prospective studies of NECB are lacking, treatment is the same as for other breast tumors. Case Report: A 70-year-old woman was diagnosed with NECB in February 2011. She underwent radical right mastectomy and right axillary node dissection. Final histopathological examination revealed NECB with positive axillary nodes (N1). The tumor cells were 100% positive for estrogen receptors and 10% positive for progesterone receptors. The HER-2 status was 3+. According to the Tumor, Node, Metastasis (TNM) Classification of Malignant Tumors, the pathologic stage was IIB - pT2pN1cM0. The histologic grade was 2 and the Ki-67 proliferation index was 5.7%. The patient received adjuvant chemotherapy, radiation therapy, IV trastuzumab, and endocrine therapy. After 9 years of follow-up, she remains disease-free. Conclusions: As far as we know, this is only the second report describing treatment of HER-2-positive NECB with trastuzumab. A literature review shows that it is the first report of treatment of HER-2-positive primary NECB with adjuvant trastuzumab. In similar cases, long-term follow-up is recommended because of the potential for multiple metastases of NECB even years after completion of adjuvant therapy.

Aims: B cells can promote or inhibit immune responses against breast cancer. We investigated changes in the frequency of B cells with stimulatory or regulatory capacity in breast tumor draining lymph nodes during cancer progression. Main methods: We isolated mononuclear cells from fresh axillary lymph nodes (LNs) of 44 patients with breast cancer and stained lymphocytes with antibodies against CD19, CD80, CD86, CD39 and CD73. To assess programmed death-1 (PD-1) and PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, lymphocytes were briefly stimulated, stained for CD19, PD-1 and PD-L1, and examined with flow cytometry. Key findings: The frequency of CD80(+) B cells was higher in nonmetastatic lymph nodes, while the percentage of CD86(+) B cells showed a positive relationship with higher tumor grade and higher numbers of involved LNs. A small proportion of unstimulated B cells expressed PD-1 or PD-L1 but these molecules were rapidly upregulated on B cells following activation. The frequency of stimulated PD-L1(+) B cells showed an inverse association with estrogen and progesterone receptor expression and a nonsignificant positive association with tumor grade. In addition, the percentage of unstimulated PD-1(+) B cells was higher in patients with higher-grade tumors. CD73 expression on B cells was associated with lower numbers of involved LNs, and the frequency of CD39+ B cells was higher in patients with larger tumors. Significance: CD86(+), CD39(+), PD-1(+) and PD-L1(+) B cells showed associations with poor prognostic factors, therefore their potential role in the suppression of the immune responses against breast cancer should be evaluated in greater detail.