The lancet oncology
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The lancet oncology · Mar 2004
Review Historical ArticleOestrogen receptor beta: what it means for patients with breast cancer.
Oestrogen receptor (ER) alpha is a well established prognostic marker in breast cancer, and all patients who are ER alpha positive receive tamoxifen as adjuvant endocrine therapy. Although ER alpha predicts a favourable disease outcome, the usefulness of ER beta as a clinical prognostic marker remains to be defined. Here, we outline the history of both ERs and discuss the implications ER beta has to patients with breast cancer.
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Events in the past 10-15 years have meant that Iraq's once highly sophisticated health-care system has fallen to rack and ruin. To fight the very low morale, Iraqi people are making use of many approaches, some of which are unconventional, such as circus entertainment to raise spirits in paediatric wards. This Reportage looks at the events that have lead to the current health-care crisis in Iraq through the eyes of those living and working there. It is based on interviews done by Jo Wilding, an independent humanitarian activist and writer working on various grassroots rehabilitation and solidarity projects in Iraq, in Al Mansour teaching hospital, Shahid Adnan hospital, the centre for Nuclear Medicine, and the Ministry of Health in Baghdad.
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By use of modern immunological and molecular analytical techniques, cells with the characteristics of tumour cells can be detected in the blood of many patients with breast cancer. The ability to detect and characterise such cells routinely could have a profound influence on the early diagnosis of breast cancer, risk stratification in the adjuvant setting, early detection of relapse, and the development of new targeted strategies. In this review we discuss current techniques to detect circulating breast-cancer cells and the limitations of these approaches. We also review the clinical studies in breast cancer and discuss the potential relevance of this research to the future management of the disorder.
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Eukaryotic organisms depend on an intricate and evolutionary conserved cell cycle to control cell division. The cell cycle is regulated by a number of important protein families which are common targets for mutational inactivation or overexpression in human tumours. ⋯ A greater understanding of the cell cycle has led to the development of a number of compounds with the potential to restore control of cell division in human cancers. This review will introduce the protein families that regulate the cell cycle, their aberrations in malignant progression and pharmacological strategies targeting this important process.