scholarly journals Epidemiological, Clinical, and Histopathological Features of Breast Cancer in Haiti

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent DeGennaro ◽  
Faiz Jiwani ◽  
Elizabeth Patberg ◽  
Martin Gibbs ◽  
Rachel Libby ◽  
...  

Purpose Little is known about the epidemiology of breast cancer in developing countries, and Haiti has perhaps the least data of any country in the Western Hemisphere. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of all patients enrolled in an ongoing breast cancer treatment program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2017. Data were drawn from each patient's electronic medical record, paper chart, and biopsy results. Results The records of 525 women with breast cancer were reviewed for this study. The median age at presentation was 49 years (n = 507). The risk factors observed were as follows: postmenopausal, 50.8% (n = 354); nulliparity, 15.7% (n = 338); hormonal contraception use, 35.0% (n = 309); never breastfed, 20.6% (n = 316); family history of any cancer, 22.0% (n = 295); overweight, 51.5% (n = 332); and smoking, 5.0% (n = 338). Of all those staged, 83.9% (n = 447) of the patients presented with stage III/IV disease and more than half delayed care for > 12 months after first noticing a breast mass. For the subset of tumors for which estrogen receptor (ER; n = 245) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2; n = 179) status was available, the prevalence of ER-positive tumors was 51.8%, of HER2-positive tumors was 19.6%, and of triple-negative tumors was 38.5%. The 12-month mortality rate (n = 425) was 18.4% overall and 27.5% for those who presented with stage IV disease. Median survival was not reached. Conclusion Breast cancer in Haiti presents at an early age and advanced stage. Triple-negative, ER-negative, and high-grade tumors are common. Delays in seeking care and incomplete treatment likely contribute to the high mortality rate; however, as in black women in the United States, the distribution of tumor types may contribute to disparate outcomes.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana S. Leal ◽  
Kayla Zydeck ◽  
Sarah Carapellucci ◽  
Lyndsey A. Reich ◽  
Di Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Despite numerous therapeutic advances in the past decade, breast cancer is expected to cause over 42,000 deaths in the United States in 2019. Breast cancer had been considered an immunologically silent tumor; however recent findings suggest that immune cells play important roles in tumor growth even in the breast. Retinoid X receptors (RXRs) are a subclass of nuclear receptors that act as ligand-dependent transcription factors that regulate a variety of cellular processes including proliferation and differentiation; in addition, they are essential for macrophage biology. Rexinoids are synthetic molecules that bind and activate RXRs. Bexarotene is the only rexinoid approved by the FDA for the treatment of refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Other more-potent rexinoids have been synthesized, such as LG100268 (LG268). Here, we report that treatment with LG 268, but not bexarotene, decreased infiltration of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and CD206-expressing macrophages, increased the expression of PD-L1 by 50%, and increased the ratio of CD8/CD4, CD25 T cells, which correlates with increased cytotoxic activity of CD8 T cells in tumors of MMTV-Neu mice (a model of HER2-positive breast cancer). In the MMTV-PyMT murine model of triple negative breast cancer, LG268 treatment of established tumors prolonged survival, and in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibodies, significantly (p = 0.05) increased the infiltration of cytotoxic CD8 T cells and apoptosis. Collectively, these data suggest that the use of LG268, a RXR agonist, can improve response to immune checkpoint blockade in HER2+ or triple-negative breast cancer.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyuna Sung ◽  
Carol DeSantis ◽  
Ahmedin Jemal

Abstract Compared with white women, black women have higher incidence rates for triple-negative breast cancer but lower rates for hormone receptor (HR)–positive cancers in the United States. Whether similar racial difference occurs in male breast cancer is unclear. We examined racial differences in incidence rates of breast cancer subtypes defined by HR and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) by sex using nationwide data from 2010 to 2016. Among men, rates were higher in blacks than whites for all subtypes, with the black-to-white incidence rate ratios of 1.41 (95% confidence interval [CI ]= 1.32 to 1.50) for HR+/HER-, 1.65 (95% CI = 1.40 to 1.93) for HR+/HER2+, 2.62 (95% CI = 1.48 to 4.43) for HR-/HER2+, and 2.27 (95% CI = 1.67 to 3.03) for triple-negative subtype. Conversely, among women, rates in blacks were 21% lower for HR+/HER2- and comparable for HR+/HER2+ but 29% and 93% higher for HR-/HER2+ and triple-negative subtypes, respectively. Future studies are needed to identify contributing factors to the dissimilar racial patterns in breast cancer subtype incidence between men and women.


2021 ◽  
Vol 107 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 12-12
Author(s):  
D Aissaoui ◽  
M Bohli ◽  
R Ben Amor ◽  
J Yahyaoui ◽  
A Hamdoun ◽  
...  

Introduction: Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) is a rare and very aggressive breast cancer with poor prognosis. The prevalence is different from a country to another. In Tunisia, it is about 5 to 7% of breast cancer. The aim of this study is to describe the epidemiological and histopathological features of patients with inflammatory breast cancer and to evaluate the treatment response according to the molecular subtypes. Methods: This retrospective review identified 31 patients with no metastatic IBC treated in our radiotherapy department between December 2019 and November 2020. IBC was confirmed using the clinical criteria. Baseline clinic-pathological and treatment information was retrieved from medical records. Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS V.20. Results: Median age was 51.3 years [27-68]. 48% of tumors were grade 3. The average tumor size was 36mm [10-90]. The histological type was ductal carcinoma in 97%. Vascular invasion was noted in 24 patients (77%). Thirty patients were classified as stage IIIB and one patient was IIIC. 74% were hormone receptor positive and 45% were HER2 positive. Luminal B was the predominant subtype (52%) followed by Her2 positive (32%), Luminal A (23%), and triple negative (3%) All patients had chemotherapy: neoadjuvant for 26 patients (84%) and adjuvant for 5 patients (16%). Nine patients (29%) had tumor pathological complete response (pCR). Partial response was observed in 18 patients (58%). Lymph node pCR was noted in 16% of cases (n=5). Endocrine therapy and trastuzumab were given to 76% and 45% of patients, respectively. The influence of the molecular subtype was not statistically significant on the response to neoadjuvant treatment. The highest rate of pCR were 43% for Her2positive, then 27%, 21% and 9% for Luminal B, Luminal A and Triple negative, respectively (p=0.2). Conclusion: Our study showed a high percentage of hormone receptor and Her2+ (74% and 45% respectively) in IBC. Luminal B was the most frequent subtype. Anthracycline-based chemotherapy and trastuzumab improved the pCR rate: 44% for Her2positive. Triple negative showed poorer pCR than other breast cancer subtype without a significant difference. A larger study is warranted to confirm our findings.


Author(s):  
Rupert Bartsch

SummaryOne year into the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) was another large congress held in a virtual format. Despite these circumstances, clinically relevant data were presented, and this short review focuses on developments in the fields of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. A quality-of-life (QoL) analysis from IMPassion031 showed that adding atezolizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with a detrimental effect on QoL, while the burden of treatment-induced side effects increased with each cycle of neoadjuvant therapy in both treatment arms. KEYNOTE-355 evaluated the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy as first-line treatment in metastatic TNBC (mTNBC); a significant improvement of progression-free survival (PFS) was reported in the pembrolizumab arm. At the 2020 SABCS, results with respect to different chemotherapy backbones were reported and the benefit of pembrolizumab was maintained irrespective of the type of taxane. Disappointingly, the phase III IPATunity130 study could not confirm a PFS improvement with the AKT inhibitor ipatasertib when added to paclitaxel as first-line treatment in mTNBC. A biomarker analysis from the phase III ASCENT study showed that the antibody–drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan was superior to chemotherapy by investigator’s choice independent of Trop‑2 expression and BRCA mutation status. In HER2-positive breast cancer, the PRECIOUS trial suggested a small albeit significant benefit with reinduction of pertuzumab in later treatment lines in patients progressing on prior dual HER2-blockade in the first- or second-line setting. The HER2-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor tucatinib when added to trastuzumab and capecitabine was shown to improve PFS and overall survival (OS) over trastuzumab and capecitabine alone in pretreated patients in the randomized HER2CLIMB trial; this benefit was apparently independent of hormone-receptor expression. An update from the DESTINY-Breast01 trial reported a median PFS of 19.4 months with trastuzumab deruxtecan in heavily pretreated patients. Finally, an analysis from the PERTAIN trial with > 6 years median follow-up showed excellent OS in patients with luminal B/HER2-positive receiving first-line trastuzumab/pertuzumab in combination with endocrine therapy suggesting that chemotherapy-free treatment is an option in highly selected patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Liu ◽  
Thomas Hardiman ◽  
Kailiang Wu ◽  
Jelmar Quist ◽  
Patrycja Gazinska ◽  
...  

AbstractThe level of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancers convey prognostic information. The importance of systemic immunity to local immunity is unknown in breast cancer. We previously demonstrated that histological alterations in axillary lymph nodes (LNs) carry clinical relevance. Here, we capture local immune responses by scoring TILs at the primary tumor and systemic immune responses by recording the formation of secondary follicles, also known as germinal centers, in 2,857 cancer-free and involved axillary LNs on haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections from a retrospective cohort of 161 LN-positive triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Our data demonstrate that the number of germinal center formations across all cancer-free LNs, similar to high levels of TILs, is associated with a good prognosis in low TILs TNBC. This highlights the importance of assessing both primary and LN immune responses for prognostication and for future breast cancer research.


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