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Background: The American Board of Surgery (ABS) has required Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES) certification for general surgery applicants since 2018. Flexible Endoscopy Curriculum (FEC) completion is recommended prior to taking the FES exam. The objective of the study was to determine if FEC completion prepares individuals to pass the FES manual skills test. Methods: Participants included first-attempt FES examinees from June 2014 to February 2019. De-identified data were reviewed, Self-reported data included gender, PGY, glove size, upper (UE) and lower (LE) endoscopy experience, simulation training time, and participation in an endoscopy rotation (ER). FES skills exam performance was reported by FES staff. Those completing all vs. none of the FEC were compared. Results: Of 2023 participants identified, 809 (40.0%) reported completion of all FEC components, 1053 (52.1%) completed of some, and 161 (8.0%) completed none. Men and candidates taking FES later in residency were more likely to complete all FEC requirements (p = 0.002, p < 0.001). FES pass rates were higher for those who completed all FEC components compared to those who completed none (88.4% vs 72.7%, p < 0.001). On logistic regression analysis, completion of all components (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.5–3.7, p < 0.001) and male gender (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.7–5.7, p < 0.001) were predictors of passing, while glove size (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.0–2.5, p = 0.08), simulator time (OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.9–1.4, p = 0.37) and PGY were not (OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.9–1.4, p = 0.38). On multivariate analysis controlling for glove size and gender, completion of all FEC components was still associated with a higher likelihood of passing the FES skills exam (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2–2.1, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Completion of FEC is strongly associated with passing the FES skills test. This study supports the ABS recommendation for completion of FEC prior to taking the FES skills test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Cassava genetic transformation has mostly been reported for African cassava varieties, but not for Asian varieties. This is the first report of cassava transformation in Asian elite varieties using friable embryogenic calli. Agrobacterium-mediated cassava transformation via friable embryogenic calli (FEC) has enabled the robust production of transgenic cassava. So far, mostly the model cassava variety 60444 and African varieties have been transformed because of their good production and regeneration from embryogenic tissues. It is important to develop transformation methods for elite Asian cassava varieties to meet the changing needs in one of the world's major cassava production areas. However, a suitable transformation method for the Asian elite variety Kasetsart 50 (KU50) has not been developed. Here, we report a transformation method for KU50, the cultivar with the highest planting area in Thailand and Vietnam. In cassava transformation, the preparation of FEC as the target tissue for transgene integration is a key step. FEC induction from KU50 was improved by using media with reduced nutrients and excess vitamin B1, and somatic embryo and plant regeneration optimized by manipulation of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), and benzylamino purine (BAP). The transformation efficiency for KU50 was 22%, approximately half that of 60444 at 45%. Transcriptome analysis indicated that the expression of genes related to cell-wall loosening was upregulated in FEC from KU50 compared with 60444, indicating that cell-wall production and assembly were disproportionate in the Asian variety. The transformation system for KU50 reported here will contribute to the molecular breeding of cassava plants for Asian farmers using transgenic and genome-editing technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of facilities of various branches of Russia's fuel and energy complex (FEC) on the Arctic permafrost zone and their stability due to climate change and the state of the upper horizons of the permafrost zone are discussed. Effective approaches are described in the design, construction, and operation of FEC facilities in permafrost. For the most significant subsectors of the energy sector (oil and gas production and transportation, electricity provision), an assessment of the economic damage as a result of changes in engineering and cryological conditions under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors was carried out. The necessity of introducing new design and construction methods, carrying out complex background and geotechnical monitoring at the FEC enterprises, and creating a center for analyzing the received data is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) is a common and quite distressing adverse effects of chemotherapy. There are few detailed observational studies of CIA or of the impact of age on CIA. We performed a prospective observational study to investigate the prevalence and degree of CIA, including CIA of eyebrows, eyelashes, and body, and we examined patient's recovery from CIA, focusing on age-depending effects. Methods: We analyzed 68 female Japanese patients with breast cancer (median age 53 years, range 29–76 years) who received perioperative adjuvant chemotherapy with fluorouracil/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide (FEC) and taxane. A questionnaire was administered at the point of chemotherapy completion and 6 and 12 months after chemotherapy completion. Results: CIA occurred in all patients, with severe hair loss irrespective of age. CIA occurred mainly in the scalp but also in the eyebrows, eyelashes, and body for most of the patients. There were significant associations between the patient's age and the onset of hair regrowth in the eyebrows, eyelashes, and body. The onset of eyebrows, eyelash, and body hair growth were significantly shorter in the premenopausal patients. Any hair changes (e.g., thinned diameter, softer texture, curlier structure) were reported by 85.3% of the patients. Conclusions: Severe CIA occurred in all 68 patients who received FEC and taxane chemotherapy. The present findings provide the first data demonstrating that age was not associated with the degree or incidence of hair loss, but age affected the recovery from CIA. These results contribute more accurate information provision and insights regarding the proper treatment of CIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the resistance to worm infection in Santa Inês sheep by combining different sets of gastrointestinal parasite resistance indicator traits, using the k-means algorithm. Records from 221 animals reared in the Mid-North sub-region of Brazil were used. The following phenotypes were used: hematocrit (HCT); white blood cell count; red blood cell count (RBC); hemoglobin (HGB); platelets; mean corpuscular hemoglobin; mean corpuscular volume; mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; fecal egg count (FEC); coloration of the ocular mucosa (FAMACHA score); body condition score (BCS); withers height; and rump height. Two files with phenotypic information of animals were edited: complete, including all traits, and reduced, in which only FAMACHA score, HCT, FEC, and BCS were used. For determination of worm resistance, three groups were formed using the k-means non-hierarchical clustering by combining the traits of the complete and reduced analyses. The animals of the group in which individuals had the lowest values for FEC and FAMACHA score, as well as the highest values for HCT, RBC, HGB, and BCS were classified as resistant. In the group with opposite values for the aforementioned traits, the animals were classified as sensitive. The animals of the group with values between the other two groups were classified as moderately resistant. The results obtained in complete and reduced analyses were equivalent. Thus, it is possible to identify animals of the Santa Inês sheep breed according to their status of resistance to worm infection based on a reduced trait set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Scalp cooling as a method to reduce the incidence of chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) is increasingly used in daily practice worldwide. However, in patients treated with 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (FEC), scalp cooling fails in 48-67% of patients. This study investigated the efficacy of extended duration of post-infusion scalp cooling in breast cancer patients treated with this regimen.Methods: In this prospective multi-centre randomised study, 102 patients with early breast cancer treated with adjuvant FEC chemotherapy were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to a post-infusion cooling time of 90 or 150 min. The primary endpoint was the need to wear a wig or other head covering to mask visible hair loss.Results: Sixteen out of 48 patients (33%) treated with 90 min of post-infusion cooling did not need any head covering, compared with 21 out of 46 patients (45%) treated with 150 min of post-infusion cooling (p = 0.2). WHO grades 2-3 (moderate-complete) alopecia were reported more often in patients treated with 90-min post-infusion cooling time (n = 25/51 (49%) versus n = 17/51 (33%); p = 0,02). Scalp cooling was well-tolerated (mean Visual Analogue Score 7.4) and only three patients (3%) stopped due to intolerance during treatment.Conclusions: Extending the duration of 90-min post-infusion scalp cooling to 150 min in patients treated with adjuvant FEC chemotherapy was well-tolerated but did not significantly diminish the need for head covering. However, grades 2-3 alopecia was seen less often with prolonged post-infusion scalp cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-input multi-output–orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO–OFDM) system serves as one of the most promising techniques that support high data rate and high performance in diverse fading channel conditions. The paper presents an overview of MIMO–OFDM wireless technology, covering advances in physical-layer design, various space–time codes, space–frequency codes and efficient concatenated forward error correction techniques, along with interleaving to yield reduced bit error rate performance (BER). Further, the paper presents the evolution of various performance metrics that are reported since the 2000s in the literature. The evolution outcome is examined using a quadratic nonlinear fitting function to assess the interesting performance metrics. Since BER versus SNR analysis is found as the interesting performance study of the MIMO–OFDM system, the current status of the achieved BER under varying SNR is reviewed and presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is rapidly becoming the dominant platform for video contribution and distribution. As Internet provides a best-effort service without any guarantee of quality. The video streaming has to cope with lack of guarantees. Due to congestion and the heterogeneous nature of Internet, a video transmission will be plagued by packet loss, variability in throughput, and latency. To mitigate the aforementioned problems, forward error correction (FEC) approach can be employed. Among different FEC schemes, due to the maximum distance separable property, Reed-Solomon (RS) erasure codes are commonly used as a method to protect the video streams when transmitted over unreliable networks. As a block-based error-correcting code, smaller block size decreases the RS code efficacy and decoding delay and larger block size increase decoding delay with the enhanced RS coding performance. Moreover, on video data, the RS codes are typically applied at the packet, frame, and sub-GoP level. In this paper, we provide a comparative analysis of different FEC approaches used to ensure reliable video transmission and study the relationship of all the approaches for different network scenarios. We presented a decision tree-based machine learning model to apply FEC by considering network conditions, video encoding parameters, and motion characteristics. With the achieved accuracy of 81%, our proposed model applied FEC on video data while maintaining the required quality of experience (QoE). The benefits of the proposed mechanism are demonstrated by carefully designed experiments and assessed through objective QoE metric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern networks are popular with a large number of short packets generated by many light weight, low power devices. We propose a new approach, segment combining and patching (SCP), for forward error control coding suitable for short packets, where the encoder logically divides a full packet into a number of partially overlapped subpackets based on a Finite Projective Plane of order m, and transmits the full packet n times. Upon receiving all n replicas of a full packet, the decoder generates an additional combined packet using Maximum Ratio Combining. By selecting non-faulty subpackets through Cyclic Redundancy Checks, both inter-cluster and intra-cluster patching are then performed on the n + 1 clusters of subpackets until no new non-faulty subpackets are generated. Simulation results in both AWGN and block fading channels demonstrate that the SCP is an effective approach for forward error control coding for short packet communication in embedded networks, sensor networks, and so on. Lastly, we provide a theory of SCP to show how it works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computational complexity evaluation is necessary for software defined Forward Error Correction (FEC) decoders. However, currently there are a limited number of literatures concerning on the FEC complexity evaluation using analytical methods. In this paper, three high efficient coding schemes including Turbo, QC-LDPC and Convolutional code (CC) are investigated. The hardware-friendly decoding pseudo-codes are provided with explicit parallel execution and memory access procedure. For each step of the pseudo-codes, the parallelism and the operations in each processing element are given. Based on it the total amount of operations is derived. The comparison of the decoding complexity among these FEC algorithms is presented, and the percentage of each computation step is illustrated. The requirements for attaining the evaluated results and reference hardware platforms are provided. The benchmarks of state-of-the-art SDR platforms are compared with the proposed evaluations. The analytical FEC complexity results are beneficial for the design and optimization of high throughput software defined FEC decoding platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years mobile devices have shown increased computational power as well as simultaneous access to multiple wireless networks that combined with advanced modulation schemes that make better use of the available bandwidth has resulted in faster transmission rates. These facts are the bases that allow for efficient mechanisms to provide more reliable communications; namely through both, Forward Error Correction and the Multipath Real-Time Protocol. In this paper, a mathematical model that accounts for the playback success of media in the context of Real Time Communications is presented. The analytical model relies on a two-state Markov process that is typical of impaired wireless environments subjected to fading. Moreover, the model is validated through an experimental framework that emulates the different loss, latency and burstiness conditions introduced in the Markov process. Specifically both, theoretical and experimental, probabilities of successful playback are compared and contrasted against media quality scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Preoperative or neoadjuvant chemotherapy is an option in patients with large operable breast cancer to facilitate the breast conservation and to downstage the disease to make inoperable breast cancer to operable one. It is also called the window of opportunity; it provides a unique opportunity to derive biological information related to tumor response. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been compared with standard, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with goals of improving survival and facilitating local therapies. Unfortunately, neoadjuvant chemotherapy does not seem to improve overall survival. There is a lack of data from India regarding the neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The present study was carried out to assess the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. Materials and methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of patients who were started on neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) at our center for 1 year (August 2012 to July 2013). Case files were thoroughly reviewed, and patient's characteristics (age, pre-/postmenopausal status, family history of breast/ovarian/other cancer), mode of detection, treatment, and histological features were analyzed. Results: Out of 322 patients with breast cancer registered in our institute, 80 patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Median age was 45 years. The most common presentation was left-sided breast lump (Lt > Rt) with a median duration of symptoms was 4 months. Postmenopausal patients (53.75 %) were more than premenopausal (46.25 %). Seventy-two patients were stage III and 8 were stage II disease. Bilateral breast cancer was seen in 8 patients. Most common histological type was invasive ductal carcinoma (95 %). Estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone (PR) positive were seen in 47 (58.75 %) patients. Ten patients were HER2 positive and ER/PR negative, and 5 patients were triple positive. Triple-negative patients were 22 (27.5 %). The most common neoadjuvant chemotherapy protocol used was FEC. Clinical response before surgery was CR 13 %, PR 68.68 %, stable disease 11.62 %, and progressive disease 4.65 %. Pathological CR was seen in 6.9 % of tumors. Nodal status at surgery was ypN0-40 %, ypN1-28. 5 %. ypN2-27 %, and ypN3-4.28 %. Conclusion: In a population of predominantly locally advanced patients, NACT with anthracyclines yielded pCR rates comparable to published studies. There were a high proportion of HER2-positive patients, most of whom could not receive anti-HER2 therapy due to financial reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless multimedia home servers are the next generation of home entertainment systems. The provision of high quality time-critical video streaming applications in indoor environments is very challenging due to high attenuation and interference caused by the walls and the contention in the shared wireless channel. This paper proposes a Delay-sensitive Multipath Forward Error Correction (DM-FEC) mechanism involving an estimation of available bandwidth and a mathematical analytical model with which the appropriate transmission rate, the FEC block length, and the FEC redundancy on each path in a multipath environment can be determined to solve previous problems. The DM-FEC mechanism not only selects the appropriate transmission rate and FEC redundancy on each path but also adaptively adjusts the FEC block length and concurrently sends data over multiple paths to overcome burst packet losses which otherwise can cause the video frame to be unplayable and impede the timely recovery of video information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The tolerance and safety associated with the administration order of the anthracycline and taxane drugs have not been evaluated. Patients and methods: Breast cancer patients with node-positive or high-risk patients with node-negative were eligible. The feasibility and toxicity were evaluated in the following regimens-arm A, 3 courses of fluorouracil 500 mg/m, epirubicin 100 mg/m and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m (FEC) followed by 3 courses of docetaxel 100 mg/m (DOC); arm B, 3 courses of DOC followed by 3 courses of FEC. Results: Forty-two patients were registered. The relative dose intensity was 94.2 % for FEC and 97.8 % for DOC in arm A, and 98.9 % for DOC and 95.2 % for FEC in arm B. In arm A, grade 3 or higher hematological toxicity was observed in nine patients, and febrile neutropenia developed in three patients with FEC. In arm B, grade 3 or higher hematological toxicity was observed in seven patients, but febrile neutropenia was not noted in any patient. Conclusion: The regimens in both arms A and B were safe regarding adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer. However, DOC followed by FEC might be more tolerable. Further studies will maximize the results obtained with DOC followed by FEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Received video quality is dependent on the available link rate and the packet loss ratio, which are correlated in a busy network link. Even low packet loss ratios (PLRs) can significantly reduce the video quality. In this paper, a packet level parity Forward Error Correction (FEC) is applied to the video stream in order to reduce the video PLR. A constant gross data rate is assumed, such that adding a FEC leads to a decrease in effective video data rate. The FEC block is truncated at the end of each video VOP, such that there are no inter-VOP dependencies for FEC correction. An algorithm is proposed to optimize the FEC length, based on the Quality of Experience as modelled by the ITU-T R G.1070 standard. It is shown that the optimization algorithm can significantly increase the video quality, without increasing the gross data rate. The algorithm has been evaluated both analytically and through simulations, which confirm the very significant increases in subjective video quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable transmission in Intermittently Connected Mobile Networks (ICMNs) is a challenging work because the effective and reliable connection between the source and the destination can not be sustained. To reliably hand over data packets to the destination, many dissemination-based routing protocols are proposed. Dissemination-based routing protocols assure nodes including intermediate nodes and destinations have more chances to receive packets, which will increase the probability that the packets can be correctly received by the destination. However, the existing error recovery mechanisms in network layer use the simple CRC to check the data packets independently, and discard the error packets even if one correct packet can be obtained from more than one partly error packets. In this paper, first we propose a novel Network layer Error Recovery method (abbreviated as NER) based on Forward Error Correction (FEC). NER divides a data packet into Reed Solomon (RS) blocks and insert redundancy to each block. So the intermediate nodes and destinations can recover a correct data packet from multiple partially error copies of the same packet. Then we propose a novel routing protocol named NER-DRP based on the Epidemic routing and NER, which can improve the performance of ICMNs in terms of delivery ratio, end-to-end delay and count of hops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a two-iteration concatenated Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) code and its high-speed low-complexity two-parallel decoder architecture for 100 Gb/s optical communications. The proposed architecture features a very high data processing rate as well as excellent error correction capability. A low-complexity syndrome computation architecture and a high-speed dual-processing pipelined simplified inversonless Berlekamp-Massey (Dual-pSiBM) key equation solver architecture were applied to the proposed concatenated BCH decoder with an aim of implementing a high-speed low-complexity decoder architecture. Two-parallel processing allows the decoder to achieve a high data processing rate required for 100 Gb/s optical communication systems. Also, the proposed two-iteration concatenated BCH code structure with block interleaving methods allows the decoder to achieve 8.91dB of net coding gain performance at 10 decoder output bit error rate to compensate for serious transmission quality degradation. Thus, it has potential applications in next generation forward error correction schemes for 100 Gb/s optical communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitous network access implies that video can be streamed to portable devices whether they are moving outdoors or docked at home. Unfortunately, broadband wireless channels and their wired alternatives present a hostile environment for video communication, which manifests itself in error bursts. This paper presents a robust application layer, channel-coding scheme suitable for data-partitioned, compressed video. Data partitioning prioritizes the more important data within a compressed bitstream. In the scheme, the more important compressed data are protected prior to communication over an access network. In particular, window-growth rateless codes are used. This form of rateless code can be incrementally scaled to reflect the importance of the data being protected. The paper gives details of the scheme for achieving this in the context of an H.264/AVC codec's picture types and structures. The paper considers how best to apply the scheme to H.264/AVC's data-partitioning modes in a practical manner. Simulations of error-prone channels show that the proposed unequal protection scheme achieves several dBs of improvement in video quality, when compared with equal protection. The simulations modeled both wireless and wired access networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing reliable data communications over wireless channels is a challenging task because time-varying wireless channel characteristics often lead to bit errors. These errors result in loss of IP packets and, consequently, TCP segments encapsulated into these packets. Since TCP cannot distinguish packet losses due to bit corruption from those due to network congestion, any packet loss caused by wireless channel impairments leads to unnecessary execution of the TCP congestion control algorithms and, hence, sub-optimal performance. Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) try to improve communication reliability and reduce packet losses by detecting and recovering corrupted bits. Most analytical models that studied the effect of ARQ and FEC on TCP performance assumed that the ARQ scheme is perfectly persistent (i.e., completely reliable), thus a frame is always successfully transmitted irrespective of the number of transmission attempts it takes. In this paper, we develop an analytical cross-layer model for a TCP connection running over a wireless channel with a semi-reliable ARQ scheme, where the amount of transmission attempts is limited by some number. The model allows to evaluate the joint effect of stochastic properties of the wireless channel characteristics and various implementation-specific parameters on TCP performance, which makes it suitable for performance optimization studies. The input parameters include the bit error rate, the value of the normalized autocorrelation function of bit error observations at lag 1, the strength of the FEC code, the persistency of ARQ, the size of protocol data units at different layers, the raw data rate of the wireless channel, and the bottleneck link buffer size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the restrictions in indoor environments do not exist for outdoor sites. The main limitations for indoors are the attenuation of walls and the multipath fading effects. The signal propagation is limited by the standard free space path loss in outdoor environments or free space. The loss in free space is usually equal to the range squared whereas the loss exponent for indoors is more like the 4th power. This study investigates the performance of turbo codes with modified Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) decoding algorithm for Bluetooth data packets in indoor environments over the frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels; which are also called as indoor wireless communication channels. In order to reduce the computational complexity of turbo decoders, MAP algorithm is modified in this study. Bit error rate (BER) versus energy of bit-to-noise ratio (E b/N o) of modified MAP algorithms for Bluetooth data packets at 2.4 GHz industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) band are evaluated by means of computer simulations. Thus, modified logarithmic likelihood ratio (LLR) method can significantly reduce the computational complexity of the MAP algorithm. Furthermore, the performances of different types of forward error correction (FEC) coding for Bluetooth data packets are compared in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicasting is an essential service for mobile ad-hoc networks. A major challenge for multicasting in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) is the unstable forwarding path. This work presents a reliable multicasting protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks. A virtual backbone is used as a shared structure for multiple sessions. A lost packet recovery scheme is developed for reliable packet transmission, called the Recovery Point (RP) scheme. The RP scheme maintains the data packets received from the source for recovering lost packets for its downstream RPs. In addition, we combine the Forward Error Correction (FEC) technology with our RP scheme to enhance the reliability of our RP scheme. A mergence scheme for RP is also proposed to avoid excessive control overhead. Our RP and FEC based scheme can be used to improve the reliability and efficiency of the traditional non-acknowledged multicasting approach. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the proposed multicasting scheme. The results demonstrate that our scheme outperforms other schemes in terms of packet delivery ratio and multicast efficiency. Furthermore, the simulation results also demonstrate that our approach is stable in networks with high mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available clinical and experimental data on the effect of HER-2/neu overexpression on chemosensitivity are controversial. It was the purpose of this in vitro study to define the association between HER-2/neu overexpression and the sensitivity to the chemotherapeutic drug combinations of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) and 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (FEC) of breast cancer cells derived from 140 chemotherapy-naïve patients at the time of primary surgery. Both drug combinations were tested at six different concentrations ranging from 6.25–200% peak plasma concentration (PPC). Immunohistochemical detection of HER-2/neu overexpression was performed with the HER-2/neu antibodies, CB11, TAB250 and AO485, in the same tumor specimens. Immunoreactions were determined as negative (0/1+), weakly positive (2+) and strongly positive (3+). However, the antibodies varied in their degrees of sensitivity. Breast cancer samples with strong (3+) HER-2/neu overexpression demonstrated 90% growth inhibition (IC90) at significantly lower PPC values, using the CB11 ( p=0.048), TAB250 ( p=0.007) and AO485 ( p≤0.01) antibodies, and showed 50% growth inhibition (IC50) at significantly lower PPC values, using the CB11 antibody ( p=0.01) compared to their counterparts with lower levels of HER-2/neu expression. When analyzing the group of patients with intermediate and strong HER-2/neu overexpression (2+ and 3+), an association between HER-2/neu overexpression and increased chemosensitivity was seen with the TAB250 ( p=0.044) and AO485 ( p=0.032) antibodies, but not with the CB11 antibody ( p=0.8) at the IC90 level. Differences in chemosensitivity between samples with strong HER-2/neu overexpression and those with lower levels were then analyzed separately for CMF and FEC. Both regimens achieved 90% tumor growth inhibition at lower PPC values in samples with strong HER-2/neu overexpression (3+) compared to their counterparts with lower expression levels (AO485 p=0.011 for CMF, and p=0.09 for FEC). Cumulative concentration-response plots of tumors responding in vitro with 90% tumor cell inhibition showed a stronger dose dependence for both CMF and FEC among tumor samples with strong HER-2/neu overexpression compared to those with lower levels of expression. In conclusion, the data show that HER-2/neu overexpression was not associated with in vitro drug resistance to CMF or FEC. In contrast, tumors with strong HER-2/neu overexpression demonstrated increased dose-dependent in vitro sensitivity to both the FEC and CMF regimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]