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Fibroadenomas are the most common benign breast tumors in women, but rarely occur in men. Herein, we present a case of fibroadenoma occurring in a young, healthy male without hormonal alterations. This indicates that fibroadenoma should be regarded as differential diagnosis for tumors in the male breast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active sex steroids including estrogens and androgens are locally produced from circulating inactive steroids by various steroid-metabolizing enzymes, and play pivotal roles in the progression of hormone-dependent breast cancers. Human 3 β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (3 β- HSD type 1) is a critical enzyme in the formation of all classes of active steroid hormones, and is also involved in the inactivation of potent androgen dihydrotestosterone ( DHT). Therefore, this enzyme is suggested to modulate active sex steroid production or inactivation, with a role in hormone-dependent breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of 3 β- HSD type 1 in human breast cancer. Using immunohistochemistry ( IHC), we evaluated 3 β- HSD type 1 expression in 161 human breast cancers and analyzed correlations of 3 β- HSD type 1 expression with various clinicopathological factors. Of 161 breast cancer cases, 3 β- HSD type 1 expression in cancer cells was detected in 119 cases (73.9%), and was positively correlated with estrogen receptor (ER)-positivity but not HER-2 status. In ER-positive cases ( n = 130), 3 β- HSD type 1 expression was inversely correlated with invasive tumor size ( P = 0.0009), presence of invasive region ( P = 0.0107), and lymphatic involvement ( P = 0.0004). 3 β- HSD type 1 expression was significantly associated with decreased risk of recurrence or improved prognosis by both univariate ( P = 0.0003 and P = 0.009, respectively) and multivariate ( P = 0.027 and P = 0.023, respectively) analyses. Our findings indicate that this enzyme is a prognostic factor in hormone-dependent breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a multimodality treatment for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC). Methods Clinical data of 40 consecutive patients treated between 1985 and 2009 were retrospectively analyzed. Results The median survival time (MST) stratified by clinical stage was 6.0 months for stage IVB and 4.2 months for stage IVC. When the stage IVB patients were classified into 2 groups (IVB-a and IVB-b) in accord with the extent of involvement of the tumor, the MST of the patients with IVB-a (9.6 months) was significantly longer than that of patients with IVB-b (4.0 months) ( p < .05). The MST of the patients treated with surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy (13.7 months) tended to be longer compared with the patients treated with 2 or fewer modalities. Conclusion The patients with a less-invasive primary tumor may gain a survival benefit from aggressive multimodality therapeutic approaches. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]