Is serum HER 2 extracellular domain level correlated with tissue HER 2 status in metastatic gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma?
The high specificity of the serum HER 2 ECD assay in predicting tissue HER 2 status suggests its potential as a surrogate marker of the HER 2 status in gastric cancer.
Low-dose paclitaxel can significantly suppress TGFbeta/Smad activity and lessen fibrosis in SCID mice. Transplantation of SSc skin into SCID mice elicits a strong angiogenesis-an effect not affected by paclitaxel. Although prolonged chemotherapy with paclitaxel at higher doses is associated with pro-fibrotic and anti-angiogenic changes, the findings described here indicate that low-dose paclitaxel may have therapeutic benefits for SSc via modulating TGFbeta signaling.