Association of genetic variantions of circadian clock genes and risk of breast cancer / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relationship between genetic variantions of circadian clock genes and risk of breast cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A case-control study including 406 breast cancer patients and 412 controls was conducted and genes Clock (rs2070062) and Per2 (rs2304672, rs2304669, rs934945) were genotyped by TaqMan real-time PCR. Unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between the genetic polymorphisms and breast cancer.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Individuals with the rs2304669-TT genotype showed significantly increased breast cancer risk with the OR of 2.33 when compared with the individuals with rs2304669-CC and CT genotypes (P = 0.001). In addition, the three haplotypes containing the risk T allele of rs2304669 were identified to be associated with increased breast cancer risk. However, it was found that rs2304672, rs2070062 and rs934945 polymorphisms were not related with breast cancer risk.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The locus rs2304669 on Per2 gene is associated with breast cancer risk. Genetic variation of circadian clock genes may increase the susceptibility to breast cancer. Therefore, it may become an important biomarker of susceptibility to breast cancer.</p>

Docetaxel plus carboplatin versus EC-T as adjuvant chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer: safety data from a phase III randomized open-label trial / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Triple-negative [estrogen receptor (ER)-/progesterone receptor (PR)-/HER2-] breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for ∼ 15% of overall breast cancer and associated with a poor prognosis. There is a short of standard adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for TNBC. A number of studies have shown that TNBC might be sensitive to cisplatin and carboplatin on the basis that dysfunction of BRCA1 and its pathway is associated with a specific DNA-repair defect, but data of adjuvant setting about this is limited.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From January 2010 to September 2011, 95 early triple-negative breast cancer patients confirmed by pathology were randomly assigned to receive TP (docetaxel 75 mg/m², carboplatin AUC = 5, day 1, 21 days a cycle for 6 cycles) or EC-T (epirubicin 90 mg/m², cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m², d1, 21 days a cycle for 4 cycles, followed by docetaxel 80 mg/m², d1, 21 days a cycle for 4 cycles) chemotherapy. Adjuvant radiation therapy was given selectively after chemotherapy. Here we report a preliminary safety analysis with the chi-square test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Seventy-six out of the 95 patients had completed the chemotherapy and could be assessed for the safety profiles of the regimens. Thirty-seven of them were in the EC-T group with a median age of 47 years, and 21 out of these 37 patients were premenopausal (56.8%). Another 39 patients came from the TP group with a median age of 46 years, and 22 out of these 39 patients were premenopausal (56.4%). All of the 37 patients in EC-T group completed the planned treatment whereas 2 patients of the 39 cases in TP group did not because of bone marrow suppression. During the treatments, 9 patients had dose adjustment in each group. Adverse events of grade 1/2 were common. Specific incidence of adverse events with grade 3/4 in each group was as follows: alopecia, 29.7% vs. 10.3% (P = 0.033), vomiting 21.6% vs. 7.7% (P = 0.085), leukopenia 54.1% vs.25.6% (P = 0.011) and neutropenia 51.4% vs. 35.9% (P = 0.174). Other grade 3/4 toxicities were rare. All the adverse events (except peripheral neuropathy and pigmentation) recovered within 1 month after the chemotherapy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Both EC-T and TP regimens as adjuvant chemotherapy are safe and tolerable for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer patients, while the TP regimen has advantages with less grade III/IV alopecia and leukopenia.</p>