Favorable outcome with sentinel lymph node biopsy alone after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in clinically node positive breast cancer at diagnosis: Turkish Multicentric NEOSENTI-TURK MF-18-02-study.

PURPOSE: Factors affecting local outcome were evaluated in patients with clinically node-positive (cN+) breast cancer at diagnosis, who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) alone after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). METHODS: Between 2004 and 2018, 303 cytopathology-proven cN (+) patients in a multicentric registry, who received NAC and underwent SLNB alone were analysed. All patients had regional nodal irradiation. RESULTS: Median age was 46 (23-70). Of those, 211 patients had ypN0 disease (69.6%), whereas 92 patients had ypN (+) disease including 19 (20.6%) isolated tumor cells (ITC), 33 micrometastases (35.9%) and 40 macrometastases (43.5%). At a median follow-up of 36 months (24-172), one patient (0.3%) with macrometastatic SLN was found to have locoregional recurrence as chest wall and supraclavicular LN metastases at the 60th month. Five-year disease-free survival (DFS) and disease specific survival (DSS) rates were 87% and 95%, respectively. Patients with cT3/4 (HR = 2.41, 95% CI; 1.14-5.07), non-luminal molecular pathology (HR = 2.60, 95% CI, 1.16-5.82), and non-pCR in the breast (HR = 2.11, 95% CI, 0.89-5.01) were found to have an increased HR compared to others in 5-year DFS. However, no difference could be found between ypN0 and ypN ITC and micrometastasis (HR = 1.23, 95% CI, 0.44-3.47), whereas there was a slight increase in HR of patients with ypN macrometastasis versus ypN0 (HR = 1.91, 95% CI, 0.63-5.79). CONCLUSION: ALND could be avoided in meticulously selected cN (+) patients who underwent SLNB after NAC having breast and/or nodal pCR, cT1-2, or low volume residual nodal disease with luminal pathology, as long as axillary radiotherapy is provided.

Comparison of different scoring systems in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery for predicting mortality and morbidity.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative risk estimation evaluating mortality and morbidity might help surgical decision. AIMS: The aim of this study was to compare the sensitivities of physiologic and operative severity score for the enumeration of mortality and morbidity (POSSUM), portsmouth-POSSUM (P-POSSUM), colorectal-POSSUM (CR-POSSUM), the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland colorectal cancer model (ACPGBI CRC) and revised ACPGBI CRC scoring systems that are used for evaluating mortality and morbidity in colorectal surgery performed in third-level healthcare centers. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A retrospective analysis has been performed on 335 consecutive patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery between 2002 and 2012. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mortality and morbidity risks of 335 patients who underwent colorectal cancer were evaluated using these scoring systems and the results were compared with actual mortality and morbidity within postoperative 30-day that extend the duration of hospital stay. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were designed to identify the score values. RESULTS: Results of POSSUM and P-POSSUM systems showed statistical differences compared with those of CR-POSSUM, ACPGBI CRC and revised ACPGBI CRC systems (P < 0.05). P-POSSUM was found to be the best scoring system for predicting mortality risk, although all scoring systems seem to be appropriate for this parameter. On the other hand POSSUM, which can predict morbidity, was found to have moderate differentiation ability due to the magnitude of the area under the ROC curve. CONCLUSIONS: Despite altering patient demographics and surgical conditions, POSSUM seems to lead as the best scoring system for predicting mortality and morbidity among others including those most-recently proposed.

The outcome effect of double-hormonal therapy in premenopausal breast cancer patients with high nodal-status: Result of a prospective randomized trial.

PURPOSE: The combination of taxanes and anthracyclines has proven efficacy in node-positive (N+) premenopausal primary breast cancer patients. Ovarian ablation is also associated with better survival outcomes in premenopausal hormone-receptor positive (HR+) patients. Therefore, this trial aims to determine the superiority of combined hormonal treatment of ovarian ablation with tamoxifen (TMX) versus TMX alone, in premenopausal N+, HR + patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) with taxane and anthracycline. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Premenopausal women who had surgically removed breast cancer with histologically confirmed N + and HR+ were included in the trial. The AC consisted of six cycles of taxotere, adriamycin, cytoxan or taxotere, epirubicin and cytoxan with the completion of radiation therapy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive TMX 20 mg/day for 5 years or up to menopause or TMX 20 mg/day for 5 years plus goserelin (GOS) 3.6 mg injection per month for 2 years. The primary end point was disease-free survival (DFS). RESULTS: Between 2003 and 2011, 101 consecutive patients were allocated to TMX (51 patients) and TMX/GOS (50 patients) groups. The mean follow-up period was 52.4 ± 2.8 months. DFS was 43.0 ± 3.6 months versus 49.9 ± 4.22 months (P = 0.13) and overall survival was 51.1 ± 3.8 months versus 53.1 ± 4.2 months (P = 0.50) in the TMX and TMX/GOS groups, respectively. The results showed 9% absolute risk reduction with respect to DFS in favor of the TMX/GOS group. CONCLUSION: This study group was comprised of stage II and III disease patients with high nodal status. The TMX/GOS combination reduced absolute risk of developing first locoregional or distant relapse by almost 9%. Longer follow-up is required to justify this protocol for routine use.

beta-catenin gene mutation in invasive ductal breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Aberrant accumulation of beta-catenin plays an important role in a variety of human neoplasms. In this study we analyzed the somatic mutations of the beta-catenin gene and the immunohistochemical localization of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 in invasive ductal breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated 65 human invasive ductal breast cancer samples for somatic mutations in the exons 3, 4, 5 and 6 of beta-catenin gene (N-terminal region) by the combined use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and sequencing. Sample tissues were also analyzed using beta-catenin and cyclin D1 immunocytochemistry staining. RESULTS: No beta-catenin mutation was detected in any of the tumor samples. Accumulation of aberrant beta-catenin protein in cellular compartments in the same breast cancer samples was confirmed with a related experiment by immunocytochemical methods. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that genetic defects in beta-catenin is not common in invasive ductal breast cancers, whereas mutations in other components of the Wnt signaling pathway should be considered.