Early evaluation of relative changes in tumor stiffness using SWE could effectively predict the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer and might indicate better therapeutic strategies on a timelier basis.

Two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) multilayer analysis of myocardial deformation is a non-invasive method that enables discrimination of transmural differences owing to myocardial ischemia or necrosis. We wished to ascertain if multilayer longitudinal strains at rest are associated with significant (≥70 %) stenosis of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) in patients with suspected non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS). Our cohort comprised 113 consecutive patients with suspected NSTE-ACS and preserved ejection fraction (EF). Using coronary angiography, we diagnosed 63 patients with significant stenosis of the LAD and 50 patients without significant coronary artery disease. Echocardiography was done ≤48 h before angiography. Multilayer longitudinal strains were assessed from the endocardium, mid-myocardium and epicardium by 2D-STE. Regional longitudinal strain in LAD territory (RLS) was calculated as the mean peak systolic longitudinal strain of segments subtended by the LAD for all myocardial layers. Significant differences were observed in all strain parameters between the two groups. RLS and global longitudinal strain in the endocardium showed higher accuracy than that in the mid-myocardium and epicardium, wall motion score index (WMSI), WMSI in LAD territory, and EF for detection of significant LAD stenosis (all P < 0.05), with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.87 and 0.91, respectively. An endocardial RLS cutoff of -23.52 % showed optimal sensitivity and specificity (88.9/80.0 %). In patients with suspected NSTE-ACS, multilayer longitudinal strain analysis at rest might enable prediction of significant LAD stenosis, and could help to identify patients requiring reperfusion.

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 15 (19), 8057-8062 IntroductionDetermination of the molecular status of invasive breast cancer is useful as a prognostic and predictive factor, and it has become standard practice in the management of breast cancer because estrogen receptor (ER) and human epidermal growth factor receptor2 (HER2) positivity predict response to endocrine therapy or targeted therapy with monoclonal antibodies directed against HER2 (Bauer et al., 2007;Doreen et al., 2011). If it is possible to predict molecular status on the basis of imaging characteristics, it could assist in both pretreatment planning and prognosis, as well as add to our understanding of the biologic behavior of this disease.Breast ultrasound has gained widespread acceptance as an adjunct to mammography in diagnosis of evaluating clinical or radiological suspected abnormalities (Gordon et al., 1995;Rizzatto et al., 2001). Stavros et al. reported that it has high sensitivity (98.4%) and negative predictive (99.5%) value for diagnosing breast cancers (Stavros et al., 1995). Ultrasound (US), with its merits of safety and low cost, is becoming a preferred method for both physicians and patients. Hence, more attention is needed toward US imaging to determine whether certain type of tumor biologic factors can be predicted from imaging appearances.A few studies have looked into correlation between

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