Cardiotoxicity is known as a severe clinical problem in oncological practice that reduces the options for cancer therapy. Physical exercise is recognized as a well-established protective measure for many heart and cancer diseases. In our study, we hypothesized that supervised and moderate-intensity exercise training would prevent heart failure and its consequences induced by trastuzumab therapy. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of physical training on ventricular remodeling, serum cardiac markers, and exercise performance in women with human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2+) breast cancer (BC) undergoing trastuzumab therapy. This was a prospective, randomized, clinical controlled trial. Forty-six BC women were randomized into either an intervention group (IG) or a control group (CG). An exercise program (IG) was performed after 3–6 months of trastuzumab therapy at 5 d/week (to 80% maximum heart rate (HRmax)) for 9 weeks. We then evaluated their cardiac function using echocardiography, a 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and plasma parameters (C-reactive protein (CRP), myoglobin (MYO), interleukin-6 (IL-6), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and creatine kinase (CK)). After the physical training program, we did not observe any significant changes in the left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF) and 6MWT (p > 0.05) in the IG compared to the CG (decrease p < 0.05). The differences in the blood parameters were not significant (p < 0.05). To conclude, moderate-intensity exercise training prevented a decrease in the LVEF and physical capacity during trastuzumab therapy in HER2+ BC. Further research is needed to validate our results.

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Summary Introduction: Despite widespread use of Panax ginseng and Ginkgo biloba, the data on the safety as well as herb-drug interactions are very limited. Therefore, we postulate that P. ginseng and G. biloba may modulate the activity and content of cytochrome P450 isozymes involved in the biotransformation of diverse xenobiotic substances. Objective: The aim of our study was to determine the influence of herbal remedies on the expression level of CYP enzymes and transcriptional factors. Methods: Male Wistar rats were given standardized Panax ginseng (30 mg/kg p.o.) or standardized Ginkgo biloba (200 mg/kg p.o.) for 3 and 10 days. The expression in liver tissue was analyzed by realtime PCR method. Results: Our results showed a decrease of CYP3A1 (homologue to human CYP3A4) mRNA level after P. ginseng extract treatment. The CYP2C6 (homologue to human CYP2C9) expression was also reduced. Additionally, after 10 days of the treatment with P. ginseng an increase of CYP1A1 (homologue to human CYP1A1) and CYP1A2 (homologue to human CYP1A2) expression was observed. Moreover, G. biloba extract also caused an increase of expression level for CYP1A1, CYP2C6, CYP3A1 and CYP3A2. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that herbal extracts can modulate the expression of transcriptional factors and CYP enzymes involved in xenobiotic metabolism and chemical carcinogenesis.

Background Measurement of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentrations remains one of the leading methods for diagnosing prostate cancer. We developed and evaluated an immunoglobulin Y (IgY)-based ELISA to measure total PSA (tPSA) concentrations in human serum that could be used as an alternative to commercially available in vitro diagnostic assays that rely on mouse monoclonal IgG. Methods A sandwich ELISA based on an anti-PSA IgY antibody was developed. We evaluated the ability of the anti-PSA IgY antibody to detect free and complexed PSA at the same molar ratio. The assay was optimized, and its analytical performance was verified by calculating limit of background (LoB), limit of detection (LoD), and limit of quantification (LoQ). We performed correlation and regression analyses between tPSA concentrations measured by our ELISA and those from commercial assays: Cobas 6000 (Roche Diagnostics, Warszawa, Poland) and PSA total ELISA (IBL International, Hamburg, Germany). Results LoB, LoD, and LoQ, were 0.061, 0.083, and 0.100 ng/mL, respectively, and linearity range was 0.100–3.375 ng/mL. tPSA concentrations from our IgY-based ELISA strongly correlated with those from the commercial assays. Conclusions Our IgY-based ELISA is an efficient equivalent to the above commercial assays. The use of IgY as the detecting agent could reduce the risk of false positive results, as well as decrease the overall cost of analysis.

Trastuzumab is indicated in the adjuvant setting for the early and intermediate stages of breast cancer (BC) positive for epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Although HER2 in BC patients tends to disrupt pro-oxidant and inflammatory signaling, the influence of trastuzumab in modulating this process remains unknown. Due to the absence of any chemotherapeutic or chemoprophylactic agents for trastuzumab-induced side effects, this study investigated the potential role of regular physical exercise in modulating the antioxidant defenses, oxidative stress, and nitrosative damage in BC patients during trastuzumab treatment. Aim: The study aimed to analyze the relationship between regular physical activity and the redox status in women with BC during trastuzumab therapy. Materials and methods: We observed 50 BC patients during trastuzumab therapy in two groups: one that undertook moderately intensive supervised physical exercises, and a second that performed physical activity according to the recommendations for cancer patients, along with a third (control) group of healthy women. Results: The antioxidant enzyme and non-enzymatic antioxidant activities were significantly higher in the exercised group compared with the other participants. The concentrations of lipid and protein oxidative damage and nitrosative stress products were significantly higher in both BC groups than in the healthy controls. Conclusions: Trastuzumab treatment stimulates a redox response in BC patients. The results highlight the oxidative imbalance in parallel with regular physical training in women with BC during trastuzumab therapy. Further studies are needed to analyze different intensities and levels of physical training in women with BC during trastuzumab treatment.