[Vitamin D and breast cancer]. / D-vitamin és emlorák.

The active form of vitamin D, in conjunction with his own receptor, affect a multitude of biological processes in the cell (inter alia it influences the expression of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes). There is an increasing volume of scientific publications examining the relationships between serum vitamin D levels, vitamin D supplementation and malignant diseases. Some articles suggest inverse relationship between the low serum levels of vitamin D and the breast cancer risk and mortality, whilst other publications do not support this view. Thus the present opinion is conflicted. Vitamin D can exert a beneficial influence on the symptoms and outcomes of a large number of ailments, but its role in affecting cancer is still not completely clear.

Early diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy: a prospective tissue Doppler imaging study.

The aim of our study was to compare the applicability of the conventional echocardiography and a novel method, tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in detection of late or subclinical cardiotoxicity following anthracycline chemotherapy in long-term follow up. Forty women (31 to 65 years) were enrolled, who had not received anthracyclines previously and had normal cardiac function. The control group consisted of 20 healthy persons of similar age range. In addition to standard echocardiographic measurements, each patient underwent specific measurements (E-septum separation, pulmonary venous flow) as well. Furthermore, the myocardial velocity of numerous segments of the mitral anulus obtained with pulsed wave TDI was also detected over a two-year-long period. Systolic left ventricular function did not change significantly either in the study or in the control group. After one year, diastolic left ventricular function was impaired in 39 patients (97.5%), and 29 (72.5%) of these showed clear changes by means of the traditional E/A ratio and TDI. However, in ten patients (25%) the diastolic dysfunction could only be detected with TDI. At the end of the study diastolic dysfunction was detected in each patient, but in 13 patients (32.5%) the relaxation disorder could be revealed only with TDI. Detectable myocardial damage occurred in the study group as a result of anthracycline therapy. Our results confirmed our assumptions that TDI is a more precise and useful examination method than the traditional ones (E/A ratio or deceleration time) to demonstrate isolated diastolic dysfunction. TDI may become a regularly and more widely used noninvasive method to detect subclinical cardiotoxicity emerging after chemotherapy.

[Cardiotoxicity induced by chemotherapy: possibilities of diagnosis]. / Kemoterápia okozta szívizom-károsodás: a diagnosztika lehetoségei.

The authors give a brief summary about the process and significance of cardiotoxicity produced by chemotherapy and irradiation used for malignancy. After the introduction, those invasive and noninvasive processes are put into focus and explained in detail, which are applied in the research of the effects of cardiotoxic chemotherapy. The clinical importance of this research is the life prolongation effect of the treatment, which allows the late-appearing toxic cardiomyopathy, resulting in congestive heart failure and increasing mortality. Summarizing the last decade's progress in research, it is evident that even in the planning of chemotherapy, the cardiovascular risks have to be taken into account, because they can greatly influence the cardiac side effect of the treatment.