Assessing the impact of the addition of dendritic cell vaccination to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients: A model-based characterization approach.

AIMS: Immunotherapy is a rising alternative to traditional treatment in breast cancer (BC) patients in order to transform cold into hot immune enriched tumours and improve responses and outcome. A computational modelling approach was applied to quantify modulation effects of immunotherapy and chemotherapy response on tumour shrinkage and progression-free survival (PFS) in naïve BC patients. METHODS: Eighty-three Her2-negative BC patients were recruited for neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy based on dendritic cell vaccination. Sequential tumour size measurements were modelled using nonlinear mixed effects modelling and linked to PFS. Data from another set of patients (n = 111) were used to validate the model. RESULTS: Tumour size profiles over time were linked to biomarker dynamics and PFS. The immunotherapy effect was related to tumour shrinkage (P < .05), with the shrinkage 17% (95% confidence interval: 2-23%) being higher in vaccinated patients, confirmed by the finding that pathological complete response rates in the breast were higher in the vaccinated compared to the control group (25.6% vs 13.6%; P = .04). The whole tumour shrinkage time profile was the major prognostic factor associated to PFS (P < .05), and therefore, immunotherapy influences indirectly on PFS, showing a trend in decreasing the probability of progression with increased vaccine effects. Tumour subtype was also associated with PFS (P < .05), showing that luminal A BC patients have better prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Dendritic cell-based immunotherapy is effective in decreasing tumour size. The semi-mechanistic validated model presented allows the quantification of the immunotherapy treatment effects on tumour shrinkage and establishes the relationship between the dynamics of tumour size and PFS.

Ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy of breast lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To review the role of ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy (CNB) in the management of breast lesions. METHODS: Review of the most relevant literature on this topic. RESULTS: This technique shows a high sensitivity value of about 97.5% and it offers many advantages over other imaging techniques to guide a biopsy: non-ionising radiation, low cost, full control of the needle in real time, accessibility in difficult locations, multidirectional punctures and excellent comfort for patients and radiologists. All of these advantages have made this technique the most widespread used to perform a biopsy for a suspicious breast lesion. The most important limitation is the failure to perform a biopsy for lesions that are not seen on ultrasound. An adequate radiological-pathological correlation is necessary to minimise the false-negative results. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-guided CNB has proven to be a reliable technique for performing a biopsy for breast lesions that can be clearly seen on ultrasound.

Phleboliths detected on mammography.

Phleboliths are commonly found on conventional radiographs of the pelvis. However, phleboliths detected on mammography are extremely rare. We report one case of phleboliths detected on mammography that were in varicosities adjacent to a venous aneurysm.

Lesiones malignas con apariencia mamográfica de ganglios intramamarios / Malignant lesions as mammographically appearing intramammary ganglia

Los ganglios intramamarios son hallazgos mamográficos frecuentes, sin trascendencia patológica. Presentamos dos casos de lesiones malignas de mama cuya apariencia mamográfica puede resultar equívoca al comportarse como los ganglios intramamarios. Aunque el aspecto mamográfico de una lesión recuerde a la de un ganglio intramamario, debe ser estudiada detenidamente, tanto si presenta algún borde mal delimitado como si es palpable (AU)