Lymph Node Ratio as a Good Prognostic Factor for Patients with Pathologic N3a Breast Cancer with 10 or More Metastatic Axillary Lymph Nodes

Purpose@#Pathologic N3a breast cancer is defined as having 10 or more metastatic axillary lymph nodes and metastases to the infraclavicular (level III axillary lymph) node. This study aimed to determine clinicopathological factors and assess the importance of lymph node ratio (LNR) as a prognostic factor for patient with N3a breast cancer treated with surgery without neoadjuvant chemotherapy. @*Methods@#Medical records of 154 patients who underwent surgery were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were pathologically diagnosed with N3a breast cancer between May 2004 and December 2014. LNR was defined as the number of metastatic lymph nodes divided by the total number of resected lymph nodes. It was calculated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The median follow up period was 94 months (range, 10–205 months). @*Results@#Among 154 patients with N3a breast cancer, 70 (45.5%) had recurrence and 40 (26.0%) died during the follow-up period. The 5-year disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates after surgery were 63.0% and 85.9%, respectively. LNR>0.82 (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.271; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.413–3.649; p=0.001) was a prognostic factor significantly associated with DFS. LNR>0.68 (HR: 2.156; 95% CI: 1.146–4.044; p=0.017) and invasive ductal carcinoma (HR: 0.125; 95% CI: 0.017–0.915: p=0.041) were significantly associated with OS. @*Conclusion@#Although LNR values associated with DFS and OS are slightly different, LNR is a good prognostic factor for patients with N3a breast cancer.

Atypical Hyperplasia at the Margin of Frozen Sections from Breast-Conserving Surgery

Purpose@#Intraoperative frozen section analysis to assess margin status during breast-conserving surgery is often performed to reduce the rate of re-excision. Whether additional resection is required if atypical cells are found at the margin during breast-conserving surgery is controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of intraoperative frozen section analysis and investigate the feasibility of additional resection in cases of atypical hyperplasia on frozen sections from breast-conserving surgery. @*Methods@#A retrospective analysis was performed on 1,411 patients with invasive breast cancer who underwent breast-conserving surgery between July 2004 and June 2012. The microscopic margins of the intraoperative frozen sections and permanent sections were examined. Overall events (locoregional recurrence and distant metastasis) were analyzed between the negative margin group and the other margin group (including atypical hyperplasia, carcinoma in situ [CIS], and invasive carcinoma). @*Results@#Of the 1,411 patients, 1,201 had negative margins and 210 had other margin types in the first frozen section. 68 patients had atypical hyperplasia on frozen section analysis. This atypical hyperplasia included atypical cells, atypical ductal hyperplasia, and atypical lobular hyperplasia. Of these 68 patients, the final findings on the permanent section were negative (n=32, 47.1%), atypical cells (n=16, 23.5%), and CIS (n=20, 29.4%). The rate of overall events and distant metastases were higher in the other margin group (9.5% vs. 5.4%, p=0.021) and (5.7% vs. 3.0%, p=0.045). Of the 1,411 patients, 44 (3.1%) had false-positive findings, and 15 (1.1%) had false-negative findings in the frozen sections, with an accuracy of 95.8%. @*Conclusion@#The accuracy of intraoperative frozen section analysis was 95.8%, with 91.7% sensitivity and 96.4% specificity. Atypical hyperplasia on frozen section analysis requires additional resection at the time of breast-conserving surgery because of the possibility of CIS, but excessive resection may be performed in other cases. Therefore, sufficient consultation with patients is required.

Nipple Adenoma Treated with Nipple Preservation in Young Female Patient: A Report of 2 Cases

Adenoma of the nipple is a rare benign type of breast that occurs most often in middle-aged women with nipple discharge, skin erosion in addition to crusting, inflammation, and pain. It can be clinically confused with Paget’s disease or breast cancer precursor lesions, such as ductal carcinoma in situ low grade. The treatment of choice for nipple adenoma is complete excision of the tumor. However in younger women, nipple preservation is required. We present two cases of nipple adenoma that were completely removed with nipple preservation.

Prognostic Factors in Patients with Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Treated by Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

PURPOSE: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has become the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate prognosis according to molecular subtype and clinicopathologic factors in patients with locally advanced breast cancer treated by NAC. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 91 patients with breast cancer who underwent NAC followed by surgery between January 2005 and January 2010. The patients were classified into four molecular subtype groups: luminal A, luminal B, HER2 enriched, and triple negative (TN). RESULTS: Thirty-five (38%) patients had luminal A, 13 (14%) patients luminal B, 22 (24%) patients HER2 enriched and 21 (21%) patients TN breast cancer. Patients with TN breast cancer tended to be more than 50 years of age and to have a higher histologic grade. There were statistically significant differences according to ypN stage (ypN0 vs. ypN1–3; p=0.019, 5-year disease-free survival [DFS]; p=0.005, 5-year overall survival [OS]) and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (p=0.003, 5-year DFS; p=0.006, 5-year OS) in the univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, LVI was a significant factor in 5-year DFS (odds ratio 2.145, 95% confidence interval 1.064–4.324, p=0.033). There was no significant difference among molecular subtypes in DFS (p=0.161) or OS (p=0.084). CONCLUSION: LVI was associated with prognosis in patients with locally advanced breast cancer treated by NAC and surgery. However, molecular subtype had no effect on 5-year DFS or OS.

A Clinical Analysis of Endoscopic Thyroidectomy via Bilateral Axillo-breast Approach: A 5-year Experience / 대한내분비외과학회지

PURPOSE: We investigated the efficacy and safety of endoscopic thyroidectomy using bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) by analyzing short term surgical outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 355 patients who underwent BABA endoscopic thyroidectomy between August 2006 and December 2011 at Chonnam National University Hospital and Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital. The age, sex, clinical and pathologic characteristics of tumors, extent of operation, conversion rate to open thyroidectomy, operation time, hospital stay, thyroglobulin levels after thyroidectomy, recurrence, and complications were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 35 years. The 355 patients comprised 345 females (97.2%) and 10 males (2.8%). The benign tumor was 37 cases (10.4%) and the malignant tumor was 318 cases (89.6%). 28 patients (75.7%) of the benign tumor underwent lobectomy. In malignant tumor, 159 patients (50.0%) underwent lobectomy and 152 patients (47.8%) underwent total thyroidectomy. Mean operation time was 121.1+/-49.9 minutes, and mean hospital days were 3.4+/-1.1 days. 21 (6.0%) transient hypocalcemia and 7 (2.0%) permanent hypocalcemia were occurred. The transient voice change occurred in 5 patients (1.4%), but nobody suffered from the permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. 4 patients of recurrent (1.3%) papillary thyroid carcinoma were treated by surgery. CONCLUSION: Compare to open thyroidectomy with long term follow up studies, BABA endoscopic thyroidectomy is a useful treatment option for both benign and malignant thyroid tumor.

The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio can discriminate anaplastic thyroid cancer against poorly or well differentiated cancer

PURPOSE: We evaluated the capability of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a diagnostic tool to discriminate between poorly differentiated thyroid cancer (PDTC) and anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) from well differentiated thyroid cancer (WDTC). METHODS: The NLR of 3,870 patients with benign and malignant thyroid tumors were analyzed. There were 436 benign, 3,364 papillary, 15 medullary, 34 follicular or hurthle type, 14 PDTC, and 7 ATC type neoplasms. Patients were divided into two groups: a high NLR group and a low NLR group. RESULTS: The NLR of all 3,870 patients was a normal distribution, and the median value was 1.57. Advanced stage cancer, such as T3 or T4 was high (30.4% vs. 26.5%, P = 0.027), and cancer-specific deaths were also high (1.2% vs. 0.4%, P = 0.018) in the high NLR group. The proportion of PDTC (0.6% vs. 0.1%) and ATC (0.3% vs. 0.1%) was higher in the high NLR group. The NLR can discriminate between PTC, PDTC, and ATC (P = 0.035, P = 0.002, and P = 0.025, respectively), and the cutoff value was 3.8 between PDTC versus ATC. None of the NLR of PDTC exceeded the cutoff value of 3.8. CONCLUSION: NLR can play a relevant role as a discriminating tool and may be considered as a new diagnostic criterion in discriminating as well as in selecting therapeutic approaches to these aggressive forms of thyroid cancer.

Atypia of undetermined significance on thyroid fine needle aspiration: surgical outcome and risk factors for malignancy

PURPOSE: This study was performed to analyze the surgical pathology results of the "atypia of undetermined significance" (AUS) category from thyroid fine needle aspiration (FNA) and to describe the characteristics to distinguish a malignant from a benign nodule. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was done on 116 patients who underwent thyroid surgery from December 2008 to December 2012, following a diagnosis of AUS from preoperative thyroid FNA. We investigated the age, gender, size and site of the nodules, ultrasonographic criteria, cytological features, the number of atypia results after repeated FNAs, surgical method, and final pathologic results. RESULTS: Sixty-five out of 116 patients underwent total thyroidectomy and the rest had partial thyroidectomy. The final pathologic results were 41 malignancies (35.3%) and 75 benign diseases (64.7%). AUS was divided into group 1: 'cannot rule out malignancy' or group 2: 'cannot rule out follicular neoplasm'. After surgery, group 1 revealed papillary thyroid cancer in most cases and group 2 revealed follicular adenoma in most cases. Age over 40 years, ultrasonographic findings suggestive of malignancy, more than 2 results of atypia from repeated FNAs and nodules less than 2 centimeters were risk factors for malignancy on univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that ultrasonographic findings suggestive of malignancy was a significant risk factor for malignancy. CONCLUSION: For proper evaluation of the risk for malignancy in thyroid AUS patients, the ultrasonographic criteria should be considered along with other clinicopathological findings such as age, nodule size, number of atypia, cytologic features.

Malignant thyroid bed mass after total thyroidectomy / 대한외과학회지

PURPOSE: Ultrasonographic (US) criteria on malignant thyroid bed mass have been suggested, including taller than wide shape, loss of echogenic hilum, abnormal vascularity, and microcalcification. The relationship between fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology findings and US findings on thyroid bed mass is unknown. We have retrospectively assessed the malignant thyroid bed mass after total thyroidectomy due to papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 2,048 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy due to PTC. FNA was performed in 97 patients on the thyroid bed under US surveillance. The 97 suspicious thyroid bed masses were divided into two groups: metastatic thyroid bed group (n = 34) and nonmetastatic group (n = 63). The groups were evaluated according to various clinical, serologic, and US findings. RESULTS: Within a median 47.0 months of follow-up, the proportion of malignant thyroid bed mass was high in large tumor size (1.37 cm vs. 1.03 cm), isthmic position (10.3% vs. 3.9%), and previous N1a (55.9% vs. 34.9%). US findings revealed that the presence of microcalcification or macrocalcification (47.1% vs. 19.0%) and thyroid bed mass height (5.4 mm vs. 3.9 mm) were the only discriminable criteria for central compartment recurrence. But, degree of echogenicity, loss of hilum, and irregularity of margin failed to discriminate malignant thyroid bed mass. CONCLUSION: US findings on malignant thyroid bed mass were different from previously reported general criteria on lateral metastatic nodes. Additional FNA cytology should be performed on patients, even low-risk patients, who present the above findings.

Clinical Significance of Serial Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen Values for Treating Rectal Cancer with Preoperative Chemoradiotherapy

PURPOSE: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy is now widely accepted to treat rectal cancer; however, the prognosis for rectal cancer patients during and after chemoradiotherapy must be determined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the serial serum carcinoembryonic antigen (s-CEA) samples in patients with rectal cancer who underwent radical surgery after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT). METHODS: This study evaluated 236 patients with rectal cancer who received preoperative CRT followed by curative surgery between June 2005 and June 2010. We measured the patient's s-CEA levels pre-CRT, post-CRT and post-surgery. Patients were classified into four groups according to their s-CEA concentrations (group 1, high, high, high; group 2, high, high, normal; group 3, high, normal, normal; group 4, normal, normal, normal). We analyzed the clinicopathologic factors and the outcomes among these groups. RESULTS: Of the 236 patients, 12 were in group 1, 31 were in group 2, 67 were in group 3, and 126 were in group 4. The 3-year disease-free survival rate in group 1 was poorer than those in group 3 (P = 0.007) and group 4 (P < 0.001). In a univariate analysis, type of surgery, clinical N stage, pathologic T or N stage, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, and CEA group were prognostic factors. A multivariate analysis revealed that type of surgery, pathologic T stage, and lymphovascular invasion were independent prognostic factors; however, no statistical significance was associated with the CEA group. CONCLUSION: High pre-CRT, post-CRT, and post-surgery s-CEA levels in patients with rectal cancer were associated with high rates of systemic recurrence and poor survival. Therefore, patients with sustained high s-CEA levels during CRT require careful monitoring after surgery.