Effects of childhood body size on breast cancer tumour characteristics

Introduction  

Although a role of childhood body size in postmenopausal breast cancer risk has been established, less is known about its influence on tumour characteristics.     

Circulating tumour cells in peripheral blood: potential impact on breast cancer outcome

Introduction  

In breast cancer, the metastatic process may involve the dissemination of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) through the blood and lymphatic system prior to the colonisation of distant organs. Here we demonstrate the predictive capacity of CTCs for detecting risk of death in breast cancer patients during established time intervals.     

Early stage breast cancer conserving treatment: High dose rate brachytherapy boost to the tumour bed

Introduction  

The dose administered to the tumour bed is a risk-factor for local recurrence in localised breast cancer following breast-conserving surgery.     

PKCα expression is a marker for breast cancer aggressiveness

Background  

Protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms are potential targets for breast cancer therapy. This study was designed to evaluate which PKC isoforms might be optimal targets for different breast cancer subtypes.     

A multimarker QPCR-based platform for the detection of circulating tumour cells in patients with early-stage breast cancer

Background:

The detection of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) has been linked with poor prognosis in advanced breast cancer. Relatively few studies have been undertaken to study the clinical relevance of CTCs in early-stage breast cancer.

Methods:

In a prospective study, we evaluated CTCs in the peripheral blood of 82 early-stage breast cancer patients. Control groups consisted of 16 advanced breast cancer patients and 45 healthy volunteers. The CTC detection was performed using ErbB2/EpCAM immunomagnetic tumour cell enrichment followed by multimarker quantitative PCR (QPCR). The CTC status and common clinicopathological factors were correlated to relapse-free, breast cancer-related and overall survival.

Results:

Circulating tumour cells were detected in 16 of 82 (20%) patients with early-stage breast cancer and in 13 out of 16 (81%) with advanced breast cancer. The specificity was 100%. The median follow-up time was 51 months (range: 17–60). The CTC positivity in early-stage breast cancer patients resulted in significantly poorer relapse-free survival (log rank test: P=0.003) and was an independent predictor of relapse-free survival (multivariate hazard ratio=5.13, P=0.006, 95% CI: 1.62–16.31).

Conclusion:

The detection of CTCs in peripheral blood of early-stage breast cancer patients provided prognostic information for relapse-free survival.     

Cardiovascular disease competes with breast cancer as the leading cause of death for older females diagnosed with breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study

Introduction  

Many women who survive breast cancer die of causes unrelated to their cancer diagnosis. This study was undertaken to assess factors that are related to breast cancer mortality versus mortality from other causes and to describe the leading causes of death among older women diagnosed with breast cancer.     

Body fat distribution and breast cancer risk: findings from the Nigerian breast cancer study

Purpose  

The relationship between overall obesity and breast cancer risk has been well recognized, but the role of central obesity in breast cancer development is uncertain.     

Targeting lactate transport suppresses in vivo breast tumour growth

Background

Most cancers, including breast cancer, have high rates of glucose consumption, associated with lactate production, a process referred as “Warburg effect”. Acidification of the tumour microenvironment by lactate extrusion, performed by lactate transporters (MCTs), is associated with higher cell proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis and increased cell survival. Previously, we have described MCT1 up-regulation in breast carcinoma samples and demonstrated the importance of in vitro MCT inhibition. In this study, we performed siRNA knockdown of MCT1 and MCT4 in basal-like breast cancer cells in both normoxia and hypoxia conditions to validate the potential of lactate transport inhibition in breast cancer treatment.

Results

The effect of MCT knockdown was evaluated on lactate efflux, proliferation, cell biomass, migration and invasion and induction of tumour xenografts in nude mice. MCT knockdown led to a decrease in in vitro tumour cell aggressiveness, with decreased lactate transport, cell proliferation, migration and invasion and, importantly, to an inhibition of in vivo tumour formation and growth.

Conclusions

This work supports MCTs as promising targets in cancer therapy, demonstrates the contribution of MCTs to cancer cell aggressiveness and, more importantly, shows, for the first time, the disruption of in vivo breast tumour growth by targeting lactate transport.     

Family history of later-onset breast cancer,breast healthy behavior and invasive breast cancer among postmenopausal women: a cohort study

Introduction  

A family history of later-onset breast cancer (FHLBC) may suggest multi-factorial inheritance of breast cancer risk, including unhealthy lifestyle behaviors that may be shared within families. We assessed whether adherence to lifestyle behaviors recommended for breast cancer prevention--including maintaining a healthful body weight, being physically active and limiting alcohol intake--modifies breast cancer risk attributed to FHLBC in postmenopausal women.     

Risk factors for breast cancer in postmenopausal Caucasian and Chinese-Canadian women

Introduction  

Striking differences exist between countries in the incidence of breast cancer. The causes of these differences are unknown, but because incidence rates change in migrants, they are thought to be due to lifestyle rather than genetic differences. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to examine breast cancer risk factors in populations with different risks for breast cancer.     

Surveillance mammography for Medicaid/Medicare breast cancer patients

Background  

Surveillance mammography for breast cancer survivors can detect recurrences early when treatment is most effective. We assessed the receipt of surveillance mammography for elderly breast cancer survivors considering their Medicaid and Medicare dual eligibility and minority status that may make them vulnerable to poor surveillance care.     

Estrogen and progesterone receptor levels in nonneoplastic breast epithelium of breast cancer cases versus benign breast biopsy controls

Background  

Previous studies and biological mechanisms of carcinogenesis suggest that the steroid receptor content of benign breast epithelium may be related to breast cancer risk. The objective in this study was to compare the levels of estrogen receptor-α (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in nonneoplastic breast epithelium between breast cancer cases and biopsy controls.     

Radiographic features for triple negative ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast

Background  

Triple negative (TN) breast cancer is characterized as having a high malignancy potential and a poor prognosis. An understanding of the radiological features of TN DCIS will enable the early detection of intractable TN invasive breast cancer.     

Circulating tumour cell-derived plastin3 is a novel marker for predicting long-term prognosis in patients with breast cancer

Background:

Identification of promising biomarkers that predict the prognosis of patients with breast cancer is needed. In this study, we hypothesised that the expression of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition-related biomarker plastin3 (PLS3) in peripheral blood could be a prognostic factor in breast cancer.

Methods:

We examined PLS3 expression in breast cancer cell lines with epithelial and mesenchymal traits and in circulating tumour cells (CTCs) obtained from the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients. We investigated PLS3 expression in the peripheral blood of 594 patients with breast cancer to evaluate the clinical significance of PLS3 expression.

Results:

Robust PLS3 expression was observed in different breast cancer cell lines (Hs578t, MCF-7, MDA-MB-468, and MDA-MB-231) as well as in a bone marrow derived cancer cell line (BC-M1). In both the training (n=298) and validation (n=296) sets, PLS3 expression was observed in CTCs of patients with breast cancer. PLS3-positive patients showed significantly poorer overall and disease-free survival than PLS3-negative patients (P=0.0001 and 0.003, respectively). Subset analysis revealed that this prognostic biomarker was relevant in patients with stage I–III cancer, particularly in patients with luminal-type and triple-negative-type tumours.

Conclusions:

These data demonstrated that PLS3 was expressed in CTCs undergoing the epithelial–mesenchymal transition in patients with breast cancer. Furthermore, PLS3 may be an excellent biomarker for identifying groups at risk of recurrence or with a poor prognosis.     

"A novel <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vivo</Emphasis> model for the study of human breast cancer metastasis using primary breast tumor-initiating cells from patient biopsies"

Background  

The study of breast cancer metastasis depends on the use of established breast cancer cell lines that do not accurately represent the heterogeneity and complexity of human breast tumors. A tumor model was developed using primary breast tumor-initiating cells isolated from patient core biopsies that would more accurately reflect human breast cancer metastasis.     

PREDICT: a new UK prognostic model that predicts survival following surgery for invasive breast cancer

Introduction  

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a prognostication model to predict overall and breast cancer specific survival for women treated for early breast cancer in the UK.     

Mammosphere culture of metastatic breast cancer cells enriches for tumorigenic breast cancer cells

Introduction  

The identification of potential breast cancer stem cells is of importance as the characteristics of stem cells suggest that they are resistant to conventional forms of therapy. Several techniques have been proposed to isolate or enrich for tumorigenic breast cancer stem cells, including (a) culture of cells in non-adherent non-differentiating conditions to form mammospheres and (b) sorting of the cells by their surface phenotype (expression of CD24 and CD44).     

Birth weight,breast cancer susceptibility loci,and breast cancer risk

Background  

There is considerable evidence that birth weight is positively associated with breast cancer risk, and seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been conclusively associated with this risk. We have hypothesized that breast cancer susceptibility loci may have a greater influence on breast cancer risk among women with higher birth weight, who are expected to have a larger pool of mammary stem cells that are susceptible to malignant transformation.     

The role of chemotherapeutic drugs in the evaluation of breast tumour response to chemotherapy using serial FDG-PET

Introduction  

The aims of this study were to investigate whether drug sequence (docetaxel followed by anthracyclines or the drugs in reverse order) affects changes in the maximal standard uptake volume (SUV_max) on [¹⁸F]flourodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with locally advanced breast cancer.     

Benign breast disease, recent alcohol consumption, and risk of breast cancer: a nested case-control study

Introduction  

Alcohol consumption is a well-established risk factor for breast cancer. Some studies have suggested that the risk of breast cancer associated with alcohol consumption is greater for women with a history of benign breast disease (BBD). We hypothesized that among women with biopsy-confirmed BBD, recent alcohol consumption would increase the risk of breast cancer in women with proliferative breast disease to a greater extent than in women with nonproliferative breast disease.