Primary tumor resection in de novo stage IV breast cancer patients

Breast and axillary surgery in Stage IV disease is outside current national guidelines but has been a topic of ongoing debate. A single institution retrospective study identified women with de novo stage IV BC from 2011‐2016 to evaluate the rate and goals of primary site surgery. Only 10.2% (n = 27/265patients) had primary site surgery. The goal of surgery was most often treatment intent (n = 23, 85.1%) not palliation (n = 4, 14.8%). There was no 30‐day mortality and low (n = 1, 3.7%) 30‐day morbidity. Multi‐disciplinary patient care pathways based on modern evidence may help identify patients potentially suitable for primary site surgery.     

Primary tumor resection in patients with stage IV breast cancer: 10-year experience

The role of surgery in the management of stage IV breast cancer is controversial. Existing studies in Stage IV breast cancer have not closely evaluated the role of patient response to induction systemic therapy (IST) in its relationship to survival outcomes. We identified all patients with a diagnosis of de novo stage IV breast cancer who underwent surgery of their primary tumor from January 2008 to December 2018. Patients were grouped according to their response in the primary disease site into progression (progressive primary disease) or no progression (nonprogressive primary; comprising complete, partial and stable response). We identified a total of 45 stage IV breast cancer patients who underwent operative intervention of their primary breast tumor. Prior to surgical intervention, progression in the primary site during IST was identified in 13/42 patients (31%), of whom four patients also had progression in the distant disease. The 5-year survival was higher in the nonprogressive primary (74%) than the progressive primary disease group (52%) which did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.08). Age, pathologic tumor size, clinical nodal status, number of positive lymph nodes, and distant disease response to systemic therapy were significantly associated with survival. In this single institution experience, select patients with stage IV breast cancer at initial diagnosis who underwent resection of the primary tumor following systemic therapy achieved favorable overall and distant progression-free survival. Surgery is reasonable to consider for local palliation or in selected patients who have excellent response to systemic therapy and good performance status.     

Radical resection of rectal cancer primary tumor provides effective local therapy in patients with stage IV disease

Background The optimal use of radical surgery to palliate primary rectal cancers presenting with synchronous distant metastases is poorly defined. We have reviewed stage IV rectal cancer patients to evaluate the effectiveness of radical surgery without radiation as local therapy. Methods Eighty stage IV patients with resectable primary rectal tumors treated with radical rectal surgery without radiotherapy were identified. Sixty-one (76%) patients received chemotherapy; response information was available for 34 patients. Results Radical resection was accomplished by low anterior resection (n=65), abdominoperineal resection (n=11), and Hartmann’s resection (n=4). Surgical complications were seen in 12 patients (15%), with 1 death and 4 reoperations. The local recurrence rate was 6% (n=5), with a median time to local recurrence of 14 months. Only one patient received pelvic radiotherapy as salvage treatment. One patient required subsequent diverting colostomy. Median survival was 25 months. On multivariate analysis, the extent of metastasis and response to chemotherapy were determinants of prolonged survival. Conclusions For patients who present with distant metastases and resectable primary rectal cancers, radical surgery without radiotherapy can provide durable local control with acceptable morbidity. The extent of metastatic disease and the response to chemotherapy are the major determinants of survival. Effective systemic chemotherapy should be given high priority in the treatment of stage IV rectal cancer.     

Influence of palliative surgical resection on overall survival in patients with advanced colorectal cancer: a retrospective single institutional study

Background The role of palliative surgical resection in patients presenting with locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is unclear. Resection is often limited to symptomatic management of bleeding, obstruction, perforation or for relief of pain, in patients with an adequate performance status and an expected life span of over several weeks. An exploratory analysis to evaluate the influence of a palliative surgical resection on survival outcome in patients with advanced CRC is reported. Method A retrospective review of medical records of all patients diagnosed with advanced CRC at our institution between the years 1998 and 2003 was undertaken. Tumour registry data were reviewed to identify age, gender, modalities of therapy [i.e. surgery (S), chemotherapy (C), radiation] and overall survival. IRB approval was obtained for this study. Results One hundred and eighty‐five patients were identified. Median age was 67 years (range 30–99). M:F ratio was 1:1. Sixty‐two per cent of patients (115/185) underwent a palliative surgical intervention. Median survival of patients who underwent S and those that did not undergo S was 22 and 3 months respectively (P < 0.0001). Forty‐eight per cent of patients (79/184) underwent systemic C. Median survival of patients who received C + S, and patients who received C alone was 30 and 15 months respectively (P < 0.0004). Fifty‐one per cent of patients who underwent S, received C; 30% of patients who did not undergo S, received C. Chemotherapy data were available on 46 of 79 patients. Patients treated with S + C, and C without S, received a median of 9 and 6 months of therapy respectively. The median number of regimens used were similar in both. Conclusion These exploratory data suggest a positive influence of a palliative resection performed during the disease course of patients with advanced CRC. The increased frequency of utilization and the more prolonged duration of C in the surgically treated patients may in part contribute to this improved survival. This may also be reflective of performance status at the time of diagnosis. Future trials enrolling patients with advanced CRC should prospectively stratify for surgical intervention to further clarify the influence of this modality on the outcome of systemic therapy in this disease.     

Limited overall survival in patients with brain metastases from triple negative breast cancer

Patients with breast cancer, which lacks ER, PR, and HER2; "triple negative" (TNBC), are at increased risk of brain metastases (BMs). However, the impact of modern therapy on the risk of BMs and outcomes remains largely unknown. In this retrospective, single-institution study we assessed the incidence of BMs, the therapeutic options, and overall survival, in a recent cohort of patients with TNBC. Women diagnosed with early stage TNBC from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2007 were identified through institutional databases. Electronic medical records were reviewed to assess patterns of recurrence, treatment, and survival. In total, 1,323 patients, median age 53 years (range 20-91), were identified. There were 298 patients (23%) who developed metastatic disease, of whom, 99 (33%) developed BMs, representing 7.5% of the entire cohort. Following BM diagnosis, treatment consisted of: radiotherapy 87 (88%) patients, resection 26 (26%) patients, and systemic chemotherapy 70 (71%) patients, with a median of 1.0 (range 0-8) chemotherapy regimens. The actuarial median survival from diagnosis of BMs is 5 months (95% CI 4-7 months). This single-institution, retrospective study confirms that the prognosis for patients with BMs from TNBC remains poor. This group of patients urgently needs improved therapies.     

The impact of lymph node metastases on the survival of breast cancer patients with ten or more positive lymph nodes

To investigate the impact of the number of involved lymph nodes on survival, we retrospectively reviewed the data for 37 patients with breast cancer and metastases of ten or more lymph nodes who underwent treatment between 1987 and 1995. Based on the number of positive lymph nodes, the patients were allocated to one of three groups. The 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates for all patients were both 53.0%. The 7 patients with 26 or more positive nodes had significantly poorer survival than either the 19 patients with 10–15 nodes, or the 11 with 16–25 nodes, although there were no differences in survival related to the extent of node involvement as defined using the Japanese staging system. Patients with 50%–75% frequency of metastasis, defined as the positive nodes/total resected nodes, had significantly better survival than those with <50% or >75% frequency. These results indicate that the number of involved lymph nodes is related to survival and that 25 positive nodes is a cutoff point in breast cancer patients with ten or more positive lymph nodes.     

Anti-HER2 antibody prolongs overall survival disproportionally more than progression-free survival in HER2-Positive metastatic breast cancer patients

BackgroundThis meta-analysis aimed to test the hypothesis that the HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) patients treated with anti-HER2 antibodies in trial intervention arms have a greater prolongation of overall survival (OS) than of progression-free survival (PFS) and this extra-prolongation of median survival time in OS relates specifically to the anti-HER2 antibody.MethodsThe NCBI/Pubmed and Cochrane databases were searched systematically for HER2-positive or mBC trials published in English during January 1999–November 2017. Treatment arms with shorter PFS were considered as the “control” arm, whereas those with longer PFS as the “test” arm. The between-treatment drug differences were grouped into nine categories. Groups with or without anti-HER2 antibodies were pooled respectively for comparisons. The interrelationships between PFS and OS hazard ratios (HRs) and median survival time differences were investigated by conducting fixed-effects and mixed-effects linear meta-regression analyses.ResultsTwenty-eight trials (10,928 patients) from 438 articles were collected, and four with missing data were excluded in meta-regression analysis. Overall median PFS (HR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.68–0.78) and median OS (HR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.77–0.87) weakly favored the longer PFS arm with a weak correlation between the PFS and OS HRs. However, the between-treatment drug difference was anti-HER2 antibody, the absolute increment in median OS time was double that of median PFS time (p < 0.001) and linearly correlated, which was not found with any non-anti-HER2 antibody drug differences.ConclusionsAnti-HER2 antibody in patients with HER2-positive mBC prolonged OS more than PFS and mandates further investigation.     

乳腺癌保乳手术38例临床分析

目的 总结保乳手术治疗早期乳腺癌的临床经验及疗效观察.方法 回顾性分析2005年1月至2010年2月新疆石河子人民医院收治的38例临床0～IIa期、非乳晕区单发肿瘤的乳腺癌患者的临床资料.分析其近期疗效,并按Rose标准,对接受保乳手术的患者进行美容效果评价.结果 所有病例术后恢复良好,无1例出现并发症,随访未见局部复发及远处转移,患者对术后乳房外形及生活质量满意.结论 早期乳腺癌患者接受保乳手术治疗可取得满意的临床和美容效果.     

Central quadrantectomy with resection of the nipple-areola complex compared with mastectomy in patients with retroareolar breast cancer

Appropriate surgery in women with retroareolar breast cancer should allow resection of the cancer with wide free margins and an acceptable cosmetic result. The aim of this study was to compare breast conservation surgery (BCS) to mastectomy for treatment of retroareolar breast cancer. In a prospective nonrandomized study, 69 women with retroareolar breast cancers underwent either central quadrantectomy (n=33) with complete removal of the nipple-areola complex or mastectomy (n=36). Two of 33 (6%) patients scheduled for BCS had a secondary mastectomy and immediate reconstruction due to involved margins. After a median follow-up of 42 month (range 17-99 months) in the BCS group and 43 months (range 16-118 months) in the mastectomy group local and regional recurrences as well as systemic disease were comparable between both groups. The postoperative cosmetic result after BCS as evaluated by the patients was rated as excellent in 80% and good in 20% with no poor result. BCS followed by radiation therapy is a feasible alternative to mastectomy in patients with retroareolar breast cancer.     

Effect of social class disparities on disease stage, quality of treatment and survival outcomes in breast cancer patients from developing countries

Abstract:  To assess the relationship between social class disparities on disease stage on presentation, quality of treatment, and survival outcome of breast cancer patients in Pakistan and compare our data with SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) data from US on white and African-American women to evaluate differences in disease stage and survival outcomes. Patients were evaluated for age, tumor size, grade, receptor status, stage, and 5-year survival and were compared with SEER data. Socio-economic status was evaluated with financial income. Patients were divided in poor and middle/high groups. Excellent and comparable 5-year survival with SEER data was observed with localized disease in all groups from different strata. Advanced disease was more common in the disadvantaged group with negligible 5-year survivals. Development and implementation of early detection programs, public awareness, and clinical and breast self examination that are more pragmatic in the settings of countries with limited resources are essential.     

Ascertaining prognosis for breast cancer in node-negative patients with innovative survival analysis

Clinical decisions to administer adjuvant systemic therapy to women with early breast cancer require knowledge about baseline prognosis, which is only assessable in the absence of such adjuvant treatment, which most patients currently do receive. The Cox model is the standard tool for assessing the effect of prognostic factors; however, there may be substantive differences in the estimated prognosis obtained by the Cox model rather than a log-normal model. For more than 50 years, clinical breast cancer data for cohorts of patients have supported the choice of a log-normal model. The prognostic impact of model type is examined here for a cohort of breast cancer patients, only 7% of whom received adjuvant systemic therapy. We quantitated prognosis utilizing Kaplan-Meier, Cox, and log-normal survival analyses for 415 consecutive T1-T3, M0, histologically node-negative patients who were operated on for primary breast cancer at Women's College Hospital between 1977 and 1986. Recurrence outside the breast for disease-free interval (DFI) and breast cancer death for disease-specific survival (DSS) were the events of interest. The patient follow-up for these investigations was 96% complete: a median 8 years for those surviving. Factors used in these investigations were age, weight, tumor size, histology, tumor grade, nuclear grade, lymphovascular invasion, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), combined ER/PR receptor, overexpression of neu oncoprotein, DNA ploidy, S-phase, and adjuvant therapy. In our study we found evidence against the Cox assumption of proportional hazards, which is not an assumption for the log-normal approach. We identified patients with greater than 96% and others with less than 40% DSS at 10 years. The difference in prognosis determined by using the Cox versus the log-normal model ranged for DFI from 1.2% to 8.1%, and for DSS from 0.4% to 6.2%; interestingly, the difference was more substantial for patients with a high risk of recurrence or death from breast cancer. Estimated prognoses may differ substantially by survival analysis model type, by amounts that might affect patient management, and we think that the log-normal model has a major advantage over the Cox model for survival analysis.     

初治Ⅳ期乳腺癌患者外科治疗对生存影响的meta分析

目的探讨Ⅳ期乳腺癌患者原发肿瘤的切除是否可以改善其总体生存情况。方法全面检索PubMed、Medline、Cochrane Library、Embase、中国知网、万方、CBM、维普等数据库中关于Ⅳ期乳腺癌治疗的相关文献,由两名作者独立筛选文献并提取数据(包括总生存期和无进展生存期及肿瘤特征)后,采用RevMan 5.3及SPSS 21.0统计软件对数据进行meta分析。结果本研究共纳入21篇文献,其中回顾性队列研究17篇,随机对照试验研究4篇。共纳入5250例Ⅳ期乳腺癌患者,其中接受局部肿瘤手术切除+全身治疗2686例(手术组),仅接受全身治疗2564例(非手术组)。meta分析结果显示,手术组的总生存期明显优于非手术组[HR=0.64,95%CI(0.59,0.69),P<0.00001];亚组分析结果显示,非RCT研究中手术组的总生存期明显优于非手术组[HR=0.60,95%CI(0.55,0.65),P<0.00001],但RCT研究中未发现2组的总生存期比较差异有统计学意义[HR=0.89,95%CI(0.73,1.09),P=0.27]。2组间无进展生存期比较差异无统计学意义[HR=0.43,95%CI(0.17,1.11),P=0.08]。进一步对2组患者的临床病理特征进行了分析发现,与非手术组比较,手术组患者呈现的特点是更年轻(P<0.05),T2分期及以下、存在骨转移、ER阴性、接受放疗、转移数目<3枚患者的比例更高(P<0.05)。结论适当选择初治Ⅳ期乳腺癌患者采用局部切除手术可以改善其总体生存情况,应进行个体化治疗。     

解剖部位对阴茎鳞癌预后的影响

目的探讨肿瘤解剖部位与阴茎鳞癌患者临床病理特征的相关性及其对肿瘤特异性生存的影响。方法回顾性分析1998-2009年间美国“检测、流行病学和最终结果（SEER）”数据库中记录的1959例阴茎鳞癌患者的临床资料,包括地理区域、确诊年龄、种族、婚姻状况、肿瘤解剖部位、肿瘤分级、SEER分期及阴茎癌特异性生存情况等。根据肿瘤解剖部位对患者进行分组,采用Х^2检验比较各组患者的临床病理特征。运用Cox回归进行单因素及多因素生存分析。对生存函数的估计采用Kaplarr Meier法,并用Log-rank法对结果进行显著性检验。结果本组患者确诊时中位年龄68（21～106）岁,中位随访时间32（0～256）个月,至随访截止日期全组共有369例（18．8％）患者死于阴茎鳞癌。与肿瘤仅发生于包皮部位的患者相比,发生于其他部位的肿瘤分期较晚（P〈0．001）且分化较差（P=0．001）。多因素分析结果显示,肿瘤分级（P〈0．001）、SEER分期（P〈0．001）及解剖部位（P=0．026）均为阴茎鳞癌特异性生存的独立预后因素。此外,肿瘤侵犯包皮以外部位的患者其长期的肿瘤特异性生存率明显降低。结论肿瘤解剖部位可能为阴茎鳞癌特异性生存的预后因素,肿瘤发生于龟头、阴茎体部或累及多个部位的患者死于阴茎癌的风险显著高于肿瘤仅发生于包皮部位者。     

Effect of intraoperative radiotherapy for early breast cancer on 10‐year recurrence rates and overall survival

The aim of this study was to evaluate 10‐year local control and overall survival of IORT for early breast cancer treatment. We analyzed 68 patients submitted to breast conservative surgery and IORT, in the accelerator room of the Radiotherapy Service in South Brazil. In the long‐term follow‐up, we had 17.6% of patients with ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence, 2.9% with regional recurrence, 2.9% with contralateral breast recurrence, and 5.9% with distant metastasis. The 10‐year overall survival was 82.8%. Our data show high local recurrence rates, however, good overall survival in early breast cancer patients treated with breast‐conserving surgery and intraoperative radiotherapy with electron beams in the long‐term follow‐up.     

Prediction of overall survival following colorectal cancer surgery in elderly patients

BACKGROUND With advanced age and chronic illness,the life expectancy of a patient with colorectal cancer(CRC) becomes less dependent on the malignant disease and more on their pre-morbid condition.Justifying major surgery for these elderly patients can be challenging.An accurate tool demonstrating post-operative survival probability would be useful for surgeons and their patients.AIM To integrate clinically significant prognostic factors relevant to elective colorectal surgery in the elderly into a validated pre-operative scoring system.METHODS In this retrospective cohort study,patients aged 70 and above who underwent surgery for CRC at Singapore General Hospital between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2012 were identified from a prospectively maintained database.Patients with evidence of metastatic disease,and those who underwent emergency surgery or had surgery for benign colorectal conditions wereexcluded from the analysis.The primary outcome was overall 3-year overall survival(OS) following surgery.A multivariate model predicting survival was derived and validated against an equivalent external surgical cohort from Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital,South Korea.Statistical analyses were performed using Stata/MP Version 15.1.RESULTS A total of 1267 patients were identified for analysis.The median post-operative length of stay was 8 [interquartile range(IQR) 6-12] d and median follow-up duration was 47(IQR 19-75) mo.Median OS was 78(IQR 65-85) mo.Following multivariate analysis,the factors significant for predicting overall mortality were serum albumin 35 g/dL,serum carcinoembryonic antigen ≥ 20 μg/L,T stage 3 or 4,moderate tumor cell differentiation or worse,mucinous histology,rectal tumors,and pre-existing chronic obstructive lung disease.Advanced age alone was not found to be significant.The Korean cohort consisted of 910 patients.The Singapore cohort exhibited a poorer OS,likely due to a higher proportion of advanced cancers.Despite the clinicopathologic differences,there was successful validation of the model following recalibration.An interactive online calculator was designed to facilitate post-operative survival prediction,available at http://bit.ly/sgh_crc.The main limitation of the study was selection bias,as patients who had undergone surgery would have tended to be physiologically fitter.CONCLUSION This novel scoring system generates an individualized survival probability following colorectal resection and can assist in the decision-making process.Validation with an external population strengthens the generalizability of this model.