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Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) gene amplification and protein overexpression occur in approximately 15% to 20% of breast cancer patients, resulting in a clinically aggressive tumor type that is associated with a poor prognosis. HER-2-tar-geted therapies could effectively reduce the recurrence and improve the prognosis of breast cancer. In recent years, the application of new anti-HER-2 agents, such as pertuzumab, T-DM1, and pyrotinib, have further improved the survival of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, and updated the guidelines for the treatment of breast cancer, making anti-HER-2 targeted therapy more accurate. This review described the latest development of targeted agents for HER-2-positive breast cancer.
ABSTRACT
There are two main lymphatic drainage routes of the breast: a superficial system and a deep system, and only the deep one can drain into the internal mammary lymph node (IMLN) which receive about 25%of the lymph of the breast. As one of the important nodal sites of lymphatic spread of breast, IMLN is important for neoplasm staging and it will guide adjuvant radiotherapy. However, there still lack an effective and feasible minimally invasive diagnosis technology of IMLN, leading to inaccurate staging and over/under-treatment. The“modified injection technique” broke through the bottle-neck of the low internal mammary visualization rate with traditional injection technique, and made the internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy possible to be a min-imally invasive assessment for IMLN status, and further guided internal mammary radiotherapy (IM-RT). Patients with IMLN positive should accept IM-RT, with IMLN negative can avoid IM-RT. With the unceasing progress in studies on internal mammary lymph drainage area, patients may obtain the individualized diagnosis and treat-ment. The review summarizes current knowledge on the anatomy and physiology of the lymphatic system of the breast to translate this into implications for clinical practice of IM-SLNB.
ABSTRACT
Background and purpose:Sentinel lymph node biopsy is regarded as the standard of care in pa-tients without clinical axillary lymph node metastases in early-stage breast cancer. Accurate detection of sentinel lymph node is an important step for staging, prognosis, and treatment. In this study, a new sentinel lymph node tracer was produced by the rituximab to combine with the lfuorescence tracer (indocyanine green, ICG), and to identify the most appropriate combination ratio of the two agents. Its biological property and safety limitation were evaluated.Methods:Rituximab was combined directly with ICG. The new tracer was analyzed for labeled rate by instant thin-layer chroma-tography-silica gel, molecular integrity by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and molecular immune activity by ELLAS. The safety limitation was tested according to the Chinese Pharmacopeia. The localization ability of sentinel lymph node was tested in mice.Results:The new tracer was intact and kept the immune activity of rituximab. The ICG labeled rate of rituximab was 100%. The new tracer was bacteria and pyogen free, and was safe to body with location injection. The most appropriate combination ratio of rituximab and ICG was 4∶1 and 6∶1 with the best sentinel lymph node imaging. The location of sentinel lymph node identiifed by the new tracer was accorded with the radiotracer.Conclusion:The preparation method of the new sentinel lymph node tracer is simple and no radioactive injury. The new tracer has no bacteria, no pyogen and no acute toxicity, and can be used in sentinel lymph node visual-ization.
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Background and purpose:Whether axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy (ASLNB) could replace axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in patients who converted after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) from cN+ to ycN0 is still contentious, and the previous study only evaluated the pathological status of ALN without internal mammary lymph node (IMLN) condition. This study is to evaluate roles of ASLNB and internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy (IM-SLNB) in breast cancer patients after NAC.Methods:From Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2014, 60 breast cancer cT1-4N0-3M0patients who were scheduled for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and agreed to accept surgery after NAC from our department were enrolled into the retrospective study. Patients with cN0 before NAC and ycN0 after NAC underwent ASLNB (group A). Patients with cN+ received NAC and ycN0 after NAC (group B) were treated with ASLNB and ALND. Only patients whose clinical nodal status remained positive (ycN+) after NAC underwent ALND without ASLNB (group C). All the patients received radiotracer injection and patients in group A and group B received blue dye injection additionally. Meanwhile, IM-SLNB would be performed for all patients with IM-SLN visualization.Results:The number of patients enrolled in group A, group B and group C was 6, 45 and 9 cases respectively. The accuracy rate of ASLNB in group A was 100% (6/6). Only one patient was axillary sentinel lymph node (ASLN) positive performed ALND. With combination of blue dye and radiolabeled colloid, the accuracy rate of ASLNB in group B was 100% (48/48) and the false negative rate (FNR) was 17.9% (5/28). The FNR in patients with 1, 2 and>2 SLNs examined was 27.3% (3/11), 20.0% (2/10) and 0% (0/7). All of the ALNs were positive in group C. The visualization rate of IM-SLN was 63.3% (38/60). The detection rate of IM-SLNB was 97.4% (37/38) and the metastasis rate was 8.1% (3/37). The incidence of complications was 5.3% (2/38).Conclusion:ASLNB can be performed either before or after preoperative chemotherapy for patients with cN0 disease. Among women with cN+ converted to ycN0 who had 3 or more SLNs examined, the FNR could return to be less than 10%. Those patients whose nodes are still ycN+ should perform ALND. IM-SLNB should be performed routinely in all breast cancer patients after NAC, for it might help to make clear of the nodal staging and the pathological status of IM-SLN and provide the accurate indication of radiation to the internal mammary area in case of under-stage and under-/over-treatment, expecting to develop the deifnition of pathological complete response (pCR).
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Objective To verify the accuracy of the modified technique for internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy ( IM-SLNB) in breast cancer .Methods In the validation study , the radiotracer was injected with the modified technique , and fluorescence tracer was injected into the peritumoral breast tissue .The radioac-tive IM-SLN was identified by preoperative lymphoscintigraphy and γprobe.The radioactive IM-SLN received bi-opsy during operation .The status of the fluorescence tracer was identified by the fluorescence imaging system . Results A total of 162 patients were enrolled from Sep .2013 to Dec.2014.IM-SLNB was performed in 110 pa-tients.The radiotracer and the fluorescence tracer were identified in the same IM-SLN in 94 cases, and the con-cordance rate was 85.5%(Case-base, Spearman coefficient correlation 0.823, P<0.001).Conclusion Dif-ferent tracers injected into the different sites of the intra-parenchyma can reach the same IM-SLN, proving the ac-curacy of the modified technique and the hypothesis of IM-SLN lymphatic drainage pattern ( IM-SLN receives not only the lymphatic drainage from the primary tumor area but the entire breast parenchyma ) .