Pathological complete response and residual DCIS following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast carcinoma.

Patients who have no residual invasive cancer following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast carcinoma have a better overall survival than those with residual disease. Many classification systems assessing pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy include residual ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) only in the definition of pathological complete response. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether patients with residual DCIS only have the same prognosis as those with no residual invasive or in situ disease. A retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database identified 435 patients, who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy for operable breast cancer between February 1985 and February 2003. Of these, 30 (7%; 95% CI 5-9%) had no residual invasive disease or DCIS and 20 (5%; CI 3-7%) had residual DCIS only. With a median follow-up of 61 months, there was no statistical difference in disease-free survival, 80% (95% CI 60-90%) in those with no residual invasive or in situ disease and 61% (95% CI 35-80%) in those with DCIS only (P=0.4). No significant difference in 5-year overall survival was observed, 93% (95% CI 75-98%) in those with no residual invasive or in situ disease and 82% (95% CI 52-94%) in those with DCIS only (P=0.3). Due to the small number of patients and limited number of events in each group, it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions from this study. Further analyses of other databases are required to confirm our finding of no difference in disease-free and overall survival between patients with residual DCIS and those with no invasive or in situ disease following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Breast cancer and pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: The management of women who have breast cancers diagnosed whilst they are pregnant is challenging. The aim is to give optimal treatment to the mother to maximise the chances of survival, whilst minimising the risks of harm to the fetus. However, few breast surgeons or oncologists develop expertise in this area owing to the rarity of the association. DESIGN: In this review we evaluate and summarise the current literature regarding the diagnosis, management and prognosis of pregnancy-associated breast cancer. Data were identified by searches of Medline, PubMed and references from relevant articles for the period from 1966 to 2004. Papers were selected based on their size and adequacy of design. RESULTS: There is a lack of controlled data concerning the management of pregnancy-associated breast cancer. The data available suggest that diagnosis and surgery may be carried out as for the non-pregnant patient, with some limitations on staging investigations. Radiotherapy is contraindicated during pregnancy although, in terms of immediate complications, chemotherapy can be used after the first trimester. CONCLUSIONS: Data from prospective databases that are currently recruiting will provide further important information concerning the management of this condition, and in particular the long-term sequelae for mother and fetus.

Detection of circulating epithelial cells in the blood of patients with breast cancer: comparison of three techniques.

This study compares the sensitivities and specificities of three techniques for the detection of circulating epithelial cells in the blood of patients with breast cancer. The number of circulating epithelial cells present in the blood of 40 patients with metastatic breast cancer and 20 healthy volunteers was determined by: immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and laser scanning cytometry (LSC), cell filtration and LSC and a multimarker real-time RT-PCR assay. Numbers of cytokeratin-positive cells identified and expression of three PCR markers were significantly higher in the blood of patients with breast cancer than in healthy volunteers. Using the upper 95% confidence interval of cells detected in controls to determine positive patient samples: 30% of patients with metastatic breast cancer were positive following cell filtration, 48% following IMS, and 60, 45 and 35% using real-time RT-PCR for cytokeratin 19, mammaglobin and prolactin-inducible peptide. Samples were significantly more likely to be positive for at least one PCR marker than by cell filtration (83 vs 30%, P<0.001) or IMS (83 vs 48%, P<0.001). The use of a multimarker real-time RT-PCR assay was therefore found to be the most sensitive technique for the detection of circulating epithelial cells in the blood of patients with breast cancer.

Oestrogen receptor status, pathological complete response and prognosis in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer.

The aim of this study was to ascertain if oestrogen receptor (ER) status predicts for pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in operable breast cancer, and the effects of pCR on survival. Using a single-institution database, 435 patients were identified, who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy for operable breast cancer and were eligible for the analysis. Patients whose tumours were ER negative were more likely to achieve a pCR than patients who were ER positive (21.6 vs 8.1%, P<0.001). Owing to a strong correlation between ER status and grade, these variables were not shown to be independent predictors of pCR. Overall survival (OS) was better in those patients who achieved a pCR compared to those who did not (5-year OS 91 vs 73%; P=0.02). This was still the case when only patients with ER-negative tumours were examined (5-year OS 90 vs 52%, P=0.005), but not in the subset of patients with ER-positive tumours (5-year OS 93 vs 79%; P=0.3). Therefore, patients with ER-negative tumours were found to be more likely to achieve a pCR to neoadjuvant chemotherapy than those with ER-positive tumours, and pathological response did not have prognostic significance in patients with ER-positive tumours.

Review of Coulter JR Interpretive Report and manual blood film assessment.

The Interpretive Reporting feature of the Coulter JR, particularly suspect messages, was examined to determine instrument comparison with manual differentials and blood film assessment. Reliability of the Coulter JR instrument in identifying abnormal specimens was proven in the true positive rating obtained in this study. This emphasized the need to further investigate those specimens which generate suspect flags and supports the decision in our laboratory to include the presence of suspect flags as one of the criteria for manual differential and blood film assessment. The significant false negative rating shown by our study demonstrates that patient specimens may be categorized as normal by the instrument, when in fact some abnormality may be detected by manual assessment. This discrepancy was primarily due to an increase in absolute numbers of band cells. Good correlation was demonstrated between the Coulter JR histogram differential and the manual differential, exclusive of absolute monocytes. The instrument adds an important dimension to morphology quality control through comparative analysis of technologist-instrument results.