Proliferation and increased number of LCs in CIN is an immune response, while such reaction is suppressed by invasive carcinoma.

MMP-2 protein and ECM1 gene are useful preoperative markers for defining malignancy in suspicious thyroid nodules.

Breast cancer is the commonest malignancy of women in many parts of the world and comprises 18% of all female cancers. There is one million new cases in the world each year. Neopterin which is a pteridine produced by activation of monocytes by IFN-γ may be used as a marker of immune system activation. The biological function of neopterin is still largely unknown and certain pathophysiologic roles have only recently been elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the role of neopterin in females with primary and metastatic breast cancer. The obtained results were correlated with different clinicopathological data of those patients. The study population included females with primary and metastatic breast cancer as well as healthy age matched females were taken as a control group. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated from each subject under study by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation technique. The isolated cells were cultured with and without PHA and neopterin levels were measured in serum and culture supernatants by ELISA technique. The results showed that neopterin levels were lowest in serum, followed by culture supernatants without PHA and highest in culture supernatants with PHA in each studied group. The mean neopterin values in serum and culture supernatants with PHA of metastatic breast cancer patients were significantly higher than in the primary breast cancer patients and the control group. Our results also indicated that neopterin levels positively correlated with the tumor grade, tumor stage and the presence of metastasis. From all mentioned data it is clear that, measurement of neopterin either in serum or in culture supernatants with or without PHA can give an indication about immunological status of breast cancer patients' response to therapy and early detection of metastasis. It gives an important and valuable prognostic information before surgical intervention is performed.

Keyword:MRI CRT DWI ADC MRF CRM EMVI a b s t r a c tThe high rate of local recurrence is considered the major concern and challenge regarding the surgical treatment of cancer rectum. The target of use of pre-operative neoadjuvant therapy is reducing tumour size and improving its resectability in order to reduce local recurrence risk and improve survival rates.Plans for management and treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer showed clear changes after use of neoadjuvant therapy. This in turn necessitates accurate evaluation of the tumour parameters before and after use of combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CRT).Aim of study is to assess the initial stage of cancer rectum then its response to neoadjuvant therapy using MRI, prior to operative interference. This is followed by post-operative histo-pathological data correlation. Methods: This study was conducted on 50 patients. All patients were examined by high-resolution T2weighted images. Turbo-spin-echo sequences taken in sagittal plane, axial plane perpendicular to tumor axis and coronal plane parallel to tumor axis or anal canal. All are according to tumor height. Diffusion weighted images (DWI) performed in all cases. Results: Following neoadjuvant therapy, down-staging was detected in this study in more than 90% of patients regarding the T2 signal and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value of the tumour, also status of depth of involvement of meso-rectal fascia (MRF), circumferential resection margin (CRM), extramural vascular invasion (EMVI) and nodal involvement. Conclusion: Pre-operative MRI in cancer rectum is irreplaceable to assess initial staging and postneoadjuvant therapy response thus improving surgical results. Ó 2018 Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Distal resectabilityAccording to the distance of the lowest edge of the tumour from the anal verge which is considered to be useful reference point for