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Purpose. To evaluate the predictive value of sentinel lymph node biopsy versus axillary node dissection on lymph node status in patients with T1-T2 breast cancer. Material and methods. Twentynine patients with T1 and 12 with T2 breast carcinoma and clinically NO axillary lymph nodes, underwent lymphoscintigraphy following the administration of 99mTc-human albumin nanocolloids. The tracer was injected subdermally, over the tumor mass, in the 34 patients with palpable lesions and peritumorally (n=3) or intratumorally (n=4), under stereotactic or ultrasound guidance, in the 7 patients with non-palpable lesions. Anterior and lateral planar images were acquired 15 min after the injection of the tracer and repeated every 30 min up to 3 hr until identification of sentinel lymph node. At the end of the scintigraphic study, sentinel node skin projection was marked using a demographic pen. Eighteen hours after lymphoscintigraphy, sentinel lymph node was identified and removed during surgery by hand-held gamma probe, then, the remaining axillary lymph nodes were dissected. All surgical specimens underwent histologic examination. Sentinel lymph nodes free of metastasis at histology, underwent additional examination with immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies against cytokeratin and EMA to search for micrometastases. Results. Sentinel lymph node was identified in the 34 patients injected subdermally and in the 3 patients injected peritumorally, while it remained undetected in the 4 patients injected intratumorally except for one case in which it was isolated by radioguided surgery but not scintigraphically. Sentinel nodes resulted free of metastases both at histology and immunohistochemistry in 32 cases and metastatic in 6. In the 32 patients with non-metastatic sentinel lymph nodes the other axillary nodes were also free of metastases. Among the 6 metastatic sentinel lymph nodes, in 3 cases they were the only metastatic nodes of the axilla while in the other 3 cases metastases were spread to other axillary nodes. Conclusions. In agreement with previous studies, our results showed that sentinel lymph node radioguided biopsy is a simple and reliable method for predicting axillary lymph nodes status and for avoiding axillary dissection in early breast cancer patients with sentinel node free of metastases.

Il lavoro affronta le problematiche e i progetti connessi alla distruzione e conservazione del patrimonio iracheno dalla I guerra del golfo in poi legate e strettamente legate alla personale esperienza in campo degli autori. Viene, tra le altre cose, nel lavoro presentato il Codice di etica Codice di etica per ricercatori che operano nel campo dei beni e delle attività culturali redatto dagli autori che aggiorna e elabora in chiave universale il Code of Ethics for Professionals concerned with the Antiquities of the Near East e tre appelli internazionali del 1994 redatti e sottoscritti da un piccolo gruppo di studiosi tra cui gli autori del presente lavoro. Il Codice verrà in seguito presentato e approvato durante il convegno Beni culturali e conflitto armati. Le sfide e i progetti tra guerra, terrorismo, genocidi, criminalità organizzata nel 2013 nell'ambito delle iniziative per la celebrazione dei 90 anni del CNR e consegnato per una sua ratifica da parte dell'UNESCO al rappresentante permanente dell'Italia presso lo stesso. Sottoposto poi alla Commissione per l'Etica della Ricerca e la biotica del CNR, il testo diverrà la base di partenza per la stesura e elaborazione di un nuovo "Codice di etica e deontologia per i ricercatori che operano nel campo dei beni e delle attività culturali"( il cui coordinamento sarà affidato a Louis Godart e del gruppo farà parte come esperta ad acta: Silvia Chiodi) che sarà approvato all'unanimità della Commissione a febbraio del 2016.

The expression of growth factors, such as transforming growth factor alpha (TGF alpha), amphiregulin (AR) and CRIPTO, a type-1 tyrosine-kinase growth factor receptor (erbB-2), and a tumor-suppressor gene (p53), that have been implicated in the development and/or the progression of breast cancer, was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 100 human primary infiltrating breast carcinomas (IBC). AR and CRIPTO immunoreactivity was also assessed in 55 human breast ductal carcinomas in situ (DCIS). Within the 100 IBC, 80, 50, 73, 17, and 34 tumors expressed moderate to high levels of TGF alpha, AR, CRIPTO, erbB-2, and p53 respectively. In addition, AR and CRIPTO immunoreactivity were found in 11 and in 26 out of 55 DCIS respectively. In contrast, only 4, 3, and 2 out of 10 normal mammary-gland samples were weakly positive for TGF alpha, AR, and CRIPTO expression, respectively, whereas none was positive for erbB-2 or p53. Within the 100 IBC, expression of erbB-2 significantly correlated with high histologic and nuclear grading, with high growth fraction, and with estrogen-receptor (ER)- and progesterone-receptor (PgR)-negative tumors. A statistically significant correlation was also observed between p53 expression and high histologic grading, high growth fraction, and PgR-negative tumors. In contrast, no significant correlations were found between TGF alpha, AR, and CRIPTO immunoreactivity and various clinicopathological parameters, with the exception of a positive correlation between TGF alpha and ER expression. These data demonstrate that TGF alpha, AR, and CRIPTO expression are significantly increased in malignant mammary epithelium relative to normal epithelium. In particular, the differential expression of CRIPTO may serve as a potential tumor marker for breast carcinogenesis.