Accurate imaging assessment of nodal disease burden in breast cancer plays an important role in planning initial surgery or neoadjuvant chemotherapy and guiding axillary management. Axillary lymph node (LN) metastasis is the most important predictor of overall recurrence and survival in patients with breast cancer, and accurate assessment of axillary LN involvement is an essen...

Our results show that in patients with breast cancer, the pretreatment apparent diffusion coefficients of patients who responded to neoadjuvant chemotherapy are significantly lower than those of patients who did not respond to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. PurposeTo evaluate the potential of diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with an apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map in the prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer.Materials and MethodsThis retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, which waived the informed consent requirement. Fifty-three consecutive women (mean age, 43.7 years; median age, 42.0 years; age range, 24–65 years) with 53 invasive breast cancers (mean diameter, 5.0 cm; median diameter, 4.2 cm; diameter range, 2.0–13.3 cm) who had undergone chemotherapy were included. Both DW MR imaging (b values, 0 and 750 sec/mm2) and dynamic contrast material–enhanced (DCE) MR imaging were performed at 1.5 T before and after chemotherapy prior to surgery. Mean time from initiation of chemotherapy to posttreatment ADC measurement was 54 days (range, 48–62 days). Average ADC for three regions of interest per tumor on ADC maps was calculated. Patients with a reduction i...

A mounting body of evidence in cancer research suggests that the local microenvironment of tumor cells has a profound influence on cancer progression and metastasis. In vitro studies on the tumor microenvironment and its pharmacological modulation, however, are often hampered by the technical challenges associated with creating physiological cell culture environments that integrate cancer cells with the key components of their native niche such as neighboring cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) to mimic complex microarchitecture of cancerous tissue. Using early-stage breast cancer as a model disease, here we describe a biomimetic microengineering strategy to reconstitute three-dimensional (3D) structural organization and microenvironment of breast tumors in human cell-based in vitro models. Specifically, we developed a microsystem that enabled co-culture of breast tumor spheroids with human mammary ductal epithelial cells and mammary fibroblasts in a compartmentalized 3D microfluidic device to replicate microarchitecture of breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). We also explored the potential of this breast cancer-on-a-chip system as a drug screening platform by evaluating the efficacy and toxicity of an anticancer drug (paclitaxel). Our microengineered disease model represents the first critical step towards recapitulating pathophysiological complexity of breast cancer, and may serve as an enabling tool to systematically examine the contribution of the breast cancer microenvironment to the progression of DCIS to an invasive form of the disease.

For ultrasensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic nanoparticles with extremely high r2 relaxivity are strongly desired. Magnetosome-like nanoparticles were prepared by coating polyethylene glycol-phospholipid (PEG-phospholipid) onto ferrimagnetic iron oxide nanocubes (FIONs). FIONs exhibited a very high relaxivity (r2) of 324 mM ^-1 s ^-1 , allowing efficient labeling of various kinds of cells. The magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of single cells labeled with FIONs is demonstrated not only in vitro but also in vivo. Pancreatic islet grafts and their rejection could be imaged using FIONs on a 1.5 T clinical MRI scanner. The strong contrast effect of FIONs enabled MR imaging of transplanted islets in small rodents as well as in large animals. Therefore, we expect that MR imaging of pancreatic islet grafts using FIONs has the potentials for clinical applications. Furthermore, FIONs will enable highly sensitive noninvasive assessment after cell transplantation.