Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with trastuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer: pathologic complete response rate, predictive and prognostic factors

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively review the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate from patients (n=86) with stage II and III HER2-positive breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy at our institution from 2008 to 2013 and to determine possible predictive and prognostic factors. Immunohistochemistry for hormone receptors and Ki-67 was carried out. Clinical and pathological features were analyzed as predictive factors of response to therapy. For survival analysis, we used Kaplan-Meier curves to estimate 5-year survival rates and the log-rank test to compare the curves. The addition of trastuzumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pCR rate from 4.8 to 46.8%, regardless of the number of preoperative trastuzumab cycles (P=0.0012). Stage II patients achieved a higher response rate compared to stage III (P=0.03). The disease-free and overall survivals were not significantly different between the group of patients that received trastuzumab in the neoadjuvant setting (56.3 and 70% at 5 years, respectively) and the group that initiated it post-operatively (75.8 and 88.7% at 5 years, respectively). Axillary pCR post neoadjuvant chemotherapy with trastuzumab was associated with reduced risk of recurrence (HR=0.34; P=0.03) and death (HR=0.21; P=0.02). In conclusion, we confirmed that trastuzumab improves pCR rates and verified that this improvement occurs even with less than four cycles of the drug. Hormone receptors and Ki-67 expressions were not predictive of response in this subset of patients. Axillary pCR clearly denotes prognosis after neoadjuvant target therapy and should be considered to be a marker of resistance, providing an opportunity to investigate new strategies for HER2-positive treatment.

Eficacia y seguridad de fulvestrant en pacientes con cáncer de mama metastásico con receptores hormonales positivos, no tributarios a quimioterapia, que ha progresado a inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos / Efficacy and safety of fulvestrant in patients with metastatic breast cancer with hormone receptor positive, non-tributary to chemotherapy, who has progressed to non-steroidal aromatase inhibitors

INTRODUCCIÓN: Antecedentes: El presente informe expone la evaluación de eficacia y seguridad del uso de fulvestrant en el manejo de pacientes post-menopáusicas, con diagnóstico de cáncer de mama metastásico con receptores hormonales positivos, progresivo a inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos con control de enfermedad visceral y de partes blandas con quimioterapia basada en taxanos con toxicidad limitante (i.e., no tributarios a quimioterapia sistémica). Aspectos Generales: El cáncer de mama es el tipo de cáncer que se diagnostica con mayor frecuencia entre mujeres a nivel mundial. En el Perú, del total de cánceres reportados entre los años 2006 a 2011, el cáncer de mama fue el tercer tipo de cáncer más frecuente en toda la población (10.3%) y el segundo tipo de cáncer más frecuente entre mujeres (16.6%). Aproximadamente 34 de cada 100 mil mujeres al año es diagnosticada con cáncer de mama, con una tasa de mortalidad de 14 por cada 100 mil mujeres diagnosticadas. El cáncer de mama metastásico es la principal causa de muerte dentro de los pacientes con cáncer de mama. Más del 90% de pacientes con cáncer de mama muere por metástasis. Tecnologia Sanitaria de Interés: Fulvestrant (nombre comercial Faslodex), es una terapia antiestrogénica de tipo SERDs. Esta terapia está indicada para el tratamiento de cáncer de mama metastásico con receptores estrogénicos positivos en mujeres post-menopáusicas que han progresado luego de terapia antiestrogénica. Fulvestrant disminuye la actividad de los receptores de estrógeno, presenta actividad anti-proliferativa, induce apoptosis, no posee actividad agonista de estrógeno y carece de resistencia cruzada con otras terapias antiestrogénicas, tales como los SERMs. METODOLOGIA: Se realizó una búsqueda de la literatura con respecto a la eficacia y seguridad de fulvestrant para el tratamiento de cáncer de mama con receptores estrogénicos positivos metastásico, en pacientes no tributarios a quimioterapia, que han progresado a inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos. Esta búsqueda se realizó utilizando los meta-buscadores: Translating Research into Practice (TRIPDATABASE), National Library of Medicine (Pubmed-Medline) y Health Systems Evidence. RESULTADOS: Sinopsis de la Evidencia: Se realizó la búsqueda bibliográfica y de evidencia científica hasta Junio 2016 para el sustento del uso de fulvestrant en el tratamiento de cáncer de mama positivo a receptores hormonales metastásico, en pacientes no tributarios a quimioterapia que han progresado a inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos. Se presenta la evidencia\r\ndisponible según el tipo de publicación priorizada en los criterios de inclusión (i.e., GP, ETS, RS y ECA fase III). CONCLUSIONES: El presente documento evaluó la evidencia científica publicada hasta Julio del 2016 para el uso fulvestrant en mujeres post-menopáusicas con cáncer de mama metastásico con receptores hormonales positivos que han progresado a tratamientos previos con inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos. Existen pacientes con cáncer de mama metastásico con receptores hormonales positivos que progresan a terapia hormonal estándar con inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos, en quienes la quimioterapia no está indicada, dejando limitadas alternativas para su tratamiento. En la actualidad, el Petitorio Farmacológico de EsSalud cuenta con exemestano, un inhibidor de aromatasa esteroideo, por lo tanto es necesario probar que fulvestrant es una alternativa superior a exemestano en relación a los desenlaces considerados en el presente dictamen. Fulvestrant, es una alternativa de terapia hormonal se segunda línea. Sin embargo, esta no ha probado ser mejor que exemestano para ninguno de los desenlaces de interés, a pesar de ello, el costo de este medicamento es considerablemente elevado en relación al que actualmente se encuentra en el petitorio farmacológico de EsSalud. El Instituto de evaluación de Tecnologías en Salud e Investigación (IETSI) no aprueba el uso de fulvestrant para el tratamiento endocrino de cancer de mama con receptores hormonales positivos metastásico en mujeres post-menopaúsicas no tributarias a quimioterapia que han progresado a terapia con inhibidores de aromatasa no esteroideos.

Insulin, insulin-like growth factor-I and breast cancer risk in Japanese women.

To evaluate the effects of glucose metabolism related factors, such as insulin and insulin-like growth-factors (IGFs), on breast cancer development among Japanese women, we conducted a case-referent study comparing 187 women presenting with operable breast cancer and 190 women of the same age having no breast cancer. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were determined by multiple logistic regression analysis. In the present study, no association in risk was observed with increasing levels of IGF-I or IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), before or after adjustment these factors. However, a suggestion of a positive association of an increased breast cancer risk was evident in postmenopausal women with elevated plasma insulin levels, particularly those with BMI>23.07. The OR for plasma insulin in the top tertile was 4.48 (95%CI:1.07-18.7) compared to the bottom tertile. For C-peptide, there was a similar positive association, with a corresponding OR of 2.28. In addition, we observed strong links between plasma insulin, C-peptide levels and estrogen receptor (ER) negative breast cancer, with ORs of 2.79(95%CI:1.09-7.16), and 2.52 (95%CI:0.91-6.97) respectively, for the top versus bottom tertiles. In conclusion, the present study suggested that plasma insulin level is a predictor of postmenopausal breast cancer in obese women and ER negative breast cancer. Additional studies are needed to clarify the role of glucose metabolism pathways in breast cancer development and interaction of IGF systems.

Hormonal receptors in mammary carcinoma: comparison between quantitative and qualitative methods

Alternatives to the traditional hormone receptor dosages for prognostic evaluation and clinical approach to breast cancer have been proposed for immunohistochemical determinations. For correlation purposes, such procedures were compared in 37 patients presenting 5 to 15 years of survival. Considering 30 fm/mg as the positivity index, the disagreement between both methods reached 35.1 percent with estrogen and 48.5 percent with progesterone receptors. When the positiveness level was changed to 20 fm/mg, the discrepancies were reduced to 32 percent with ER and increased to 57 percent with PgR. This study leads us to not recommend the immunohistochemical method applied to paraffin sections as an alternative procedure to the dextran-charcoal dosage for prognosis and therapeutic management of mammary carcinoma.

Progesterone receptors content of the endometrium in patients with luteal phase defect and its relationship to endometrium maturation and serum progesterone level

Luteal phase defect [LPD], a disorder characterized by delayed secretory endometrial maturation is associated with infertility and/or recurrent abortion. This endometrial retardation may not be a result of deficient progesterone secretion, but rather a consequence of endometrial failure to respond adequately to progesterone stimulation. This study included 20 patients with LPD suffering of infertility or habitual abortion and 20 control cases. All cases were subjected to endometrial biopsy on the 26th day of the cycle to assess maturation, immunostaining of the endometrial tissue for progesterone receptor content and serum progesterone level on the 25th and 26th days of the same cycle. The endometrial maturation had a lag of 4.46 days in infertile cases and 4.86 days in habitual aborters. The difference was insignificant. The serum progesterone levels showed no significant difference between study and control cases. The glandular progesterone receptors were higher in LPD cases, while stromal receptors were more in the control cases. These results suggested that serum progesterone determination is not ideal for LPD prediction. Estimation of progesterone receptors in the endometrium is valuable as failure of down regulation of glandular progesterone receptors in late luteal phase may be an etiologic factor in LPD

Immunohistochemical study of estrogen and progesterone receptors in normal, hyperplastic and malignant endometrium

A series of 44 cases of various human endometrial tissues were immunohistochemically stained for estrogen receptor [ER] and progesterone receptor [PR] using formalin -fixed, paraffin - embedded sections. ER/PR content was evaluated in the epithelium, stroma and myometrium according to the percentage of positive cells and the intensity of nuclear stain. The receptor content was highest in the proliferative epithelium and decreased gradually throughout the postovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle in both the epithelium and the stroma. ER / PR content was high both in the epithelium and stroma of hyperplasia without atypia and was thus similar to that of the proliferative endometrium. The receptor content was very low in the epithelium and stroma of hyperplasia with cytologic atypia. In carcinomas, there was a heterogeneous distribution of ER and PR both in the epithelium and stroma, but in general, the receptor content was low as compared with normal proliferative or hyperplastic endometrium without atypia. Endometrioidtype adenocarcinomas including those with squamous differentiation had the highest degree of positivity for both receptors. Tumors with architectural grade 3 were significantly immunostained less than those with 2 or 1 grades. Carcinomas with nuclear grade 3 were unstaind. The low grade endometrial stromal sarcoma was positive for both receptors, while the high - grade one was negative. The degrees of ER and PR positivity correlated with each other. There was no correlation between the patient's age and ER / PR categories. The results of this study indicate that immunohistochemical analysis of sex steroid receptor status on formalin -fixed, paraffin - embedded tissues offers good alternative to the standard biochemical procedure