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We performed a systematic review of the literature about descending necrotising mediastinitis (DNM) of odontogenic origin. In parallel, a retrospective review of this pathology was carried out in an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Service of a reference hospital for a population of 1,100,000 inhabitants. The main objectives were to determine changes in mortality and prevalence of this serious complication. The systematic review included 51 articles with 89 patients and our study comprised seven patients. The period of time with the highest number of cases was between 2000-2009 (38 patients). The percentage of mortality observed was 20.2% in diffuse DNM and 4.9% in localised DNM. Thirty-one patients with DNM in our review were admitted for more than 41 days. Despite evidence of a decrease in DNM cases, publications have increased over the years, but it does not appear to be due to an increase in those of odontogenic origin. The survival of DNM has improved since 1998 and remained stable since then. Despite the low prevalence of this disease, multicentre control studies are needed to achieve better evidence about this entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Several studies have suggested the significance of some metalloproteases in the malignant behaviour of hepatocellular carcinoma. Aims: To evaluate the liver expression of MMPs and their tissular inhibitors in patients with HCC. Methods: An immunohistochemical study using tissue microarrays on samples obtained from 30 HCC patients, with antibodies against MMPs (1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14) and TIMPs (1, 2 and 3) was performed. Results were correlated with various clinico-pathological findings and with overall survival. Results: MMP-1 is mainly expressed by stromal cells, and MMP-13, TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 by inflammatory cells. A positive correlation between MMP-1 expression and larger size tumours (p <0.01) was found. Increased TIMP-2 expression was associated with higher preoperative serum levels of α-fetoprotein (p <0.01). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering for total score values designated two groups, one of them characterised by high MMPs and TIMPs expressions, including 21 cases (70%) for tumour cell clustering, 5 cases for fibroblasts (16.6%) and 6 cases for inflammatory cells (20%). All patients showing elevated MMPs and TIMPs expression in stromal cells presented a poor prognosis (p <0.05). Conclusions: High liver MMPs and TIMPs expressions in peritumour stromal cells are related to a poorer prognosis in HCC. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objectives: Gene expression analysis has identified several breast cancer subtypes, including luminal, epidermal growth factor receptor-2 positive (HER2+), and basal-like. To determine if our proposed molecular taxonomy correlates with biological and clinical behavior. This is based on four biological markers: estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR, respectively), HER2 and the epidermal growth factor receptor-1 (HER1), all of them being determined by quantitative assays. Study design: The biological parameters were examined by enzyme immunoassay, radioligand-binding assay or ELISA, in tumors from 787 patients with invasive breast cancer. Patients were prospectively evaluated over a median follow-up period of 50 months. Subtype definitions were as follows: luminal (ER+), HER2+ (HER2+, ER−, PgR−) and basal-like (HER2−, ER−, PgR−). In addition, we divided basal tumors into two groups based on their HER1 status. Results: A 55.8% of tumors were of luminal type, 11.9% basal-like HER1+, 10.7 basal-like HER1−, and the remainder 21.6% HER2+. Both HER2+ and basal-like subtypes were more frequent in younger and premenopausal women, showing a higher percentage of cases of poorly differentiated tumors and higher S-phase fraction, when compared with those of luminal subtype. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the subtype of tumor was related to both relapse and overall survival, being those of luminal subtype associated with the best prognosis. Conclusions: Through the classification of breast tumors in four groups, according to their ER, PgR, HER2 and HER1 status, it is possible to obtain a major division of breast tumors associated with significant differences in biological features and clinical behavior. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]