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Background: Gallbladder carcinoma presents a dismal prognosis. Choice treatment is surgical resection that is associated a high levels of both morbidity and mortality. Best knowledgement of prognostic factors may result a better selection of patients either for surgical or multimodal treatment., Aim: To evaluate tecidual immunoexpression of P53, E-cadherin, Cox-2, and EGFR proteins and to correlate these findings with resected gallbladder adenocarcinoma survival., Methods: Clinical, laboratorial, surgical, and anatomopathological reports of a series of gallbladder adenocarcinoma patients were collected by individualized questionary. Total sample was 42 patients. Median of age was 72 years (35-87). There were seven men and 35 women. Lesion distribuition in according TNM state was the following: T1 (n=2), T2 (n=5), T3 (n=31), T4 (n=4). Twenty-three patients underwent radical resection (R0), while 19 palliative surgery (R1-R2). A block of tissue microarray with neoplasic tissue of each patient was confected. It was performed evaluation of P53, E-Caderine, COX-2, and EGFR proteins imunoexpression. These findings were correlated with overall survival., Results: Five-year survival was 28%. The median of global survival was eight months. Only immunoexpression of EGFR protein was considered independent variable at multivariated analysis., Conclusion: Final prognosis was influenced by over-expression of EGFR protein in tumoral tissue.

Objective: To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of cox-2 before primary chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (FEC) and its association with initial tumor size, lymph node status, hormone receptors, expression of HER2 and the clinical and pathological response in patients with breast cancer., Methods: We conducted a retrospective study with 41 women with histopathological diagnosis of ductal breast carcinoma. They underwent primary chemotherapy with FEC regimen (5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide) at 500mg/m2, 75mg/m2 and 500 mg/m2, respectively. Inclusion criteria were age range between 30 and 70 years, stage II to IIIA, absence of metastasis, primary tumor of the breast, single, unilateral, with ductal invasion at histology and absence of heart disease and pregnancy. To evaluate the expression of HER2/neu protein we used rabbit monoclonal antibodies. To visualize the expression of cox-2 protein we used polyclonal antibodies obtained from goats' serum. The evaluation of clinical response to treatment was performed during physical examination by measuring the major tumor axis with a pachymeter. Measurements were taken at admission and after primary chemotherapy cycles. After three chemotherapy sessions at intervals of 21 days the surgical procedure was carried out. We adopted the criteria of RECIST. After the operation we evaluated the local pathological response, which was considered complete when there was absence of invasive neoplasia and of the in situ component. In immunohistochemical assessing of estrogen receptors we used estrogen receptor NCL-ER6F11 and, for progesterone, progesterone receptor NCL-PGR-312, considering positive the staining of 10% or more tumor cells., Results: The distribution according to UICC clinical stage classified six patients in stage IIA (14.6%), 22 in stage IIB (53.6%) and 13 stage IIIA (31.8%). The initial clinical evaluation of the major tumor axis ranged from 2.5 to 15 cm and a median of 5 cm. We identified 14 patients (34.1%) with negative lymph node status, and 27 positive (65.9%). It was observed that 19 (46.3%) were in premenopause and 22 (53.6%) in menopause., Conclusion: There was an association of the expression of Cox-2 to the factors associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer, such as positive lymph node status, negative hormone receptors and HER2 expression.