scholarly journals Management of Early Breast Cancer at an Australian Cancer Centre During the Early Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 318-328
Author(s):  
Elissa J Zhang ◽  
Kirsty Stuart ◽  
Rina Hui ◽  
Rhiannon Mellor ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
...  

Background: This study aimed to prospectively record changes to treatment for early breast cancer patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.  The purpose was to assess the impact on breast cancer outcomes and to determine the need for any mitigative actions.  Methods: The study was conducted in the breast cancer unit of a tertiary referral hospital. Patients with early (non-metastatic) breast malignancy discussed in multidisciplinary team meetings between March and June 2020 were included. Patients were newly diagnosed, post-operative or post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Standard treatment was defined by Westmead Breast Cancer Institute protocols and any variations related to the pandemic were recorded. Results: In the study, 145 patients were included (median age 59 years). Pandemic-related changes to management were noted in 13 of 145 (9.0%) patients. Four patients experienced a delay to cancer treatments, four were not offered reconstructive/ symmetrisation surgical procedures, three had altered radiotherapy protocols and two patients were not offered enrolment to a clinical trial. These impacts affected the groups presenting with new cancers (n=7/86, 8.1%), post-operative cases (n=4/25, 16.0%) and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy cases presenting for surgical planning (n=2/34, 5.9%).  Conclusion: Most patients (91.0%) received standard treatment during the first wave of the pandemic. The minor variations from institutional protocols observed in this study are unlikely to affect local control or survival in this patient cohort, but close follow-up is required. Quality of life may have been affected for four patients who had downgraded or delayed reconstructive procedures.

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1992
Author(s):  
Max Seidensticker ◽  
Matthias Philipp Fabritius ◽  
Jannik Beller ◽  
Ricarda Seidensticker ◽  
Andrei Todica ◽  
...  

Background: Radioembolization (RE) with yttrium-90 (90Y) resin microspheres yields heterogeneous response rates in with primary or secondary liver cancer. Radiation-induced liver disease (RILD) is a potentially life-threatening complication with higher prevalence in cirrhotics or patients exposed to previous chemotherapies. Advances in RILD prevention may help increasing tolerable radiation doses to improve patient outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of post-therapeutic RILD-prophylaxis in a cohort of intensely pretreated liver metastatic breast cancer patients; Methods: Ninety-three patients with liver metastases of breast cancer received RE between 2007 and 2016. All Patients received RILD prophylaxis for 8 weeks post-RE. From January 2014, RILD prophylaxis was changed from ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and prednisolone (standard prophylaxis [SP]; n = 59) to pentoxifylline (PTX), UDCA and low-dose low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) (modified prophylaxis (MP); n = 34). The primary endpoint was toxicity including symptoms of RILD; Results: Dose exposure of normal liver parenchyma was higher in the modified vs. standard prophylaxis group (47.2 Gy (17.8–86.8) vs. 40.2 Gy (12.5–83.5), p = 0.017). All grade RILD events (mild: bilirubin ≥ 21 µmol/L (but <30 μmol/L); severe: (bilirubin ≥ 30 µmol/L and ascites)) were observed more frequently in the SP group than in the MP group, albeit without significance (7/59 vs. 1/34; p = 0.140). Severe RILD occurred in the SP group only (n = 2; p > 0.1). ALBI grade increased in 16.7% patients in the MP and in 27.1% patients in the SP group, respectively (group difference not significant); Conclusions: At established dose levels, mild or severe RILD events proved rare in our cohort. RILD prophylaxis with PTX, UDCA and LMWH appears to have an independent positive impact on OS in patients with metastatic breast cancer and may reduce the frequency and severity of RILD. Results of this study as well as pathophysiological considerations warrant further investigations of RILD prophylaxis presumably targeting combinations of anticoagulation (MP) and antiinflammation (SP) to increase dose prescriptions in radioembolization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Cong Jiang ◽  
Yubo Lu ◽  
Shiyuan Zhang ◽  
Yuanxi Huang

Background and Methods. As a parameter integrating neutrophil (N), lymphocyte (L), and platelet (P) levels, altered systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) has been investigated in a number of malignant tumor types. Here, we explore the impact of SII in a cohort of 249 breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), investigating the prognostic value of SII, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). All patients had complete follow-up data and pathological confirmation of breast cancer by a core needle biopsy prior to NAC treatment and surgery. All blood samples were obtained within one week prior to NAC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine the optimal cut-off value for patient classification by SII, NLR, and PLR. Associations between clinicopathological variables by SII, NLR, and PLR were determined by a chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test. Overall survival (OS) analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier plots, log-rank tests, and Cox proportional hazards regression models. The Z test is used to compare the prognostic ability of SII, NLR, and PLR. Results. SII, NLR, and PLR did not define patient groups with distinct clinicopathological characteristics. SII, NLR, and PLR cut-off values were 547, 2.13, and 88.23, as determined by ROC analysis; the corresponding areas under the curve (AUCs) were 0.625, 0.555, and 0.571, respectively. Cox regression models identified SII as independently associated with OS. Patients with low SII had prolonged OS (65 vs. 41 months, P = 0.017 , HR: 3.24, 95% CI: 1.23-8.55). In the Z test, the difference in AUC between SII and NLR was statistically significant ( Z = 2.721 , 95% CI: 0.0194-0.119, P = 0.0065 ). Conclusion. Our study suggests that the pretreatment SII value is significantly correlated with OS in breast cancer patients undergoing NAC and that the prognostic utility of SII is superior to that of NLR and PLR.


2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (10) ◽  
pp. 1110-1117
Author(s):  
Florian Heitz ◽  
Sherko Kümmel ◽  
Bianca Lederer ◽  
Christine Solbach ◽  
Knut Engels ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Oestrogen receptor beta (ER-β) is abundantly expressed in breast cancer (BC), but its impact on neoadjuvant chemotherapy outcome is unknown. Patients and Methods Patients treated in the neoadjuvant GeparTrio trial with available tissue for immunohistochemical analyses were included. Nuclear ER-β expression was correlated with clinico-pathologic characteristics. The impact of its expression on pathological complete response (pCR [ypT0/ypN0]) and survival was determined. Results Samples of 570 patients were available. Low nuclear ER-β expression (IRS < 9) was observed in 48.4% of hormone receptor positive and 58.6% of hormone receptor negative tumours. Low nuclear ER-β expression was associated with higher pCR rates compared to high nuclear ER-β expression (16.1% vs. 4.7%, p = 0.026). Low ER-β expression was no independent predictor of pCR in multivariate analyses. Disease-free and overall survival were not statistically different between patients with high and low nuclear ER-β expression. Triple-negative BCs showed low nuclear ER-β expression in 57.7%, and pCR rates were 27.1% and 0% (p = 0.23) in low and high ER-β expressing tumours, respectively. Conclusion Low ER-β expression is associated with improved pCR rates in univariate analyses. However multivariate analyses and survival analyses do not indicate an impact of ER-β on survival in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Further examination of ER-β as predictor for endocrine therapy might be of value.


2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 21085-21085 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Mueller ◽  
S. Riethdorf ◽  
S. Loibl ◽  
M. Komor ◽  
J. Houber ◽  
...  

21085 Background: The impact of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in patients with primary breast cancer is still unclear. Primary systemic treatment (PST) allows the assessment of therapeutic efficacy in breast cancer patients without long follow-up periods. Here we present first results on the presence of CTC in peripheral blood of patients enrolled in the “GeparQuattro” study. Methods: This study incorporates three different chemotherapy approaches and additional Trastuzumab (Herceptin®) treatment for patients with HER-2/neu-positive tumors. Recruitment finished in November 2006 and not all patients have completed therapy yet. We used the CellSearch™ system to evaluate CTC before PST from 245 patients and after PST from 67 patients. CTC from 45 samples were also examined for HER-2/neu expression by immunocytochemistry in the CellSearch™ system. Results: Before PST we detected CTC in 54/245 patients (22%). CTC numbers in 7.5 mL blood ranged between 1 and 200 (mean 6.5). In 8 CTC-positive samples (3.3%) = 5 CTC were found. Her-2/neu-positive CTC were observed in 25/45 cases (55.6%). CTC could be detected in 7/67 patients (10.4%) after PST (1 or 2 CTC). Before and after PST blood was analyzed from 43 patients, 27 of them were CTC-negative at both time points. Ten initially CTC-positive cases were CTC-negative after PST whereas 6 cases were detected CTC-positive after PST although no CTC could be found before PST. Conclusions: With the CellSearch™ system CTC can be detected in non-metastatic breast cancer patients at primary diagnosis and also after PST. To our knowledge, this is the largest study evaluating the presence of CTC in this context. With the availability of response information from more patients, it will be possible to examine the correlation between the incidence of CTC and response as well as kinetics of HER-2/neu expression during Trastuzumab treatment. [Table: see text]


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 910
Author(s):  
Mervat Mahrous ◽  
Majid Al Jahel ◽  
Ahmed Al Hugaily Al Hugaily ◽  
Ghassan Al Sisi ◽  
Samira Al Sulmani ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Heran Deng ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Tingting Hu ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Yaping Yang ◽  
...  

Purpose Women with atypical hyperplasia (AH) is associated with a higher risk of later breast cancer. However, whether AH found at margins in patients with breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) needs re-excision is not well-defined. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of atypical hyperplasia at the surgical margins on the local recurrence and survival outcomes in breast cancer patients treated with NAC and BCS. Methods A retrospective analysis comparing patients who received NAC with AH and received no re-excision to those without AH at the margins of BCS was performed. Results 323 patients were included in this study. The 5-year rates of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) were 6% and 4.5% in patients with and without AH, respectively. Distant-metastasis-free survival (DMFS) at 5 years was 81.2% in the AH group, and 88.1% in the no-AH group. No significant differences were observed among the two groups in terms of IBTR, DMFS, or OS. Conclusion Our study suggests that AH involved at the surgical margins of BCS in patients who received NAC does not increase the risk of ipsilateral breast cancer, and there is insufficient evidence for surgeon to further resect AH found at the margins of BCS in these patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelie de Gregorio ◽  
Lothar Häberle ◽  
Peter A. Fasching ◽  
Volkmar Müller ◽  
Iris Schrader ◽  
...  

Abstract Background When chemotherapy is indicated in patients with early breast cancer, regimens that contain anthracyclines and taxanes are established standard treatments. Gemcitabine has shown promising effects on the response and prognosis in patients with metastatic breast cancer. The SUCCESS-A trial (NCT02181101) examined the addition of gemcitabine to a standard chemotherapy regimen in high-risk early breast cancer patients. Methods A total of 3754 patients with at least one of the following characteristics were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment arms: nodal positivity, tumor grade 3, age ≤ 35 years, tumor larger than 2 cm, or negative hormone receptor status. The treatment arms received either three cycles of 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide, followed by three cycles of docetaxel (FEC → Doc); or three cycles of FEC followed by three cycles of docetaxel and gemcitabine (FEC → Doc/Gem). The primary study aim was disease-free survival (DFS), and the main secondary objectives were overall survival (OS) and safety. Results No differences were observed in the 5-year DFS or OS between FEC → Doc and FEC → Doc/Gem. The hazard ratio was 0.93 (95% CI, 0.78 to 1.12; P = 0.47) for DFS and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.74 to 1.19; P = 0.60) for OS. For patients treated with FEC → Doc and FEC → Doc/Gem, the 5-year probabilities of DFS were 86.6% and 87.2%, and the 5-year probabilities of OS were 92.8% and 92.5%, respectively. Conclusion Adding gemcitabine to a standard chemotherapy does not improve the outcomes in patients with high-risk early breast cancer and should therefore not be included in the adjuvant treatment setting. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02181101 and EU Clinical Trials Register EudraCT 2005-000490-21. Registered September 2005.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 9581-9581
Author(s):  
Blase N. Polite ◽  
Jacob B Allred ◽  
Hope S. Rugo ◽  
Toni Marie Cipriano ◽  
Constance Cirrincione ◽  
...  

9581 Background: Previous metastatic breast cancer trials have shown lower overall survival among African American (AA) women. Studies have also shown links between higher comorbidities and lower levels of social support and survival. Whether these factors differ by race and ethnicity is not known. Methods: Breast cancer patients enrolling in a phase III cooperative group metastatic breast cancer trial completed a self-administered survey measuring psychosocial and socio-demographic factors and comorbidities. Results were analyzed by self-identified race/ethnicity and evaluated by other measured variables. Results: 703 out of 799 patients completed the survey (88%). Questions were answered by greater than 95% of participants. The table shows differences broken down by Race/Ethnicity. AA and Hispanic (H) patients were more likely to have trouble paying for medications and have incomes less than 15K per year. AA were less likely to be married, and had lower levels of social support. Differences in income did not mediate these social support differences. Marital status did not mediate lower social support for AA (p=0.79) but did so for whites (p<0.001) Conclusions: Compliance with the questionnaire was quite high. Differences in social support by race were apparent and were mediated by different factors according to race. Future efforts will analyze the impact of these factors on survival and as mediators for potential racial and ethnic differences in survival. [Table: see text]


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (31_suppl) ◽  
pp. 47-47
Author(s):  
Sophia Kustas Smith ◽  
Kelly E. Westbrook ◽  
Kristin MacDermott ◽  
Matthew Roger LeBlanc ◽  
Sathya Amarasekara ◽  
...  

47 Background: Evidence shows that shared decision making is effective in improving the quality of end of life care, and that it rarely happens; new interventions are needed. Four Conversations is an evidence-based, online curriculum that facilitates shared decision making. This presentation will report the impact of Four Conversations on key outcomes. Methods: Individuals with metastatic breast cancer and caregivers are being recruited nationally. Consenting participants are randomized 1:1 to the treatment or wait-listed control arm. Treatment arm participants access content online; required activities included viewing interactive videos and completing workbook activities. Surveys are administered at Baseline, Week-4, and Week-8 via REDCap to assess for: decision making self-efficacy and conflict; and program satisfaction. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare change in decision making outcomes in treatment and usual care conditions at Week-4. A paired-samples t-test was used to access for changes in outcomes from Baseline to Week-8 among the treatment arm. Results: Participants (n = 138) were: mean age 53.2 (11.8) years; 96% female; 91% white; 72% married. There was significant improvement in decision making self-efficacy and reduction in conflict among the treatment arm at follow-up (p < .05). There was no significant change in decision making self-efficacy and conflict scores for treatment and wait-listed control conditions at the end of the intervention (p > .05). Among treatment arm participants who did not already have an advanced care directive, most (56%) completed one. Most participants (88%) would recommend Four Conversations to others and felt that the program better prepared them to make better decisions. Conclusions: While these results are preliminary (i.e., data collection continues through 9/2017), they suggest that Four Conversations may effect decision-making outcomes for metastatic breast cancer patients and caregivers. Additional research is recommended with larger and more diverse samples following completion of this study. Clinical trial information: NCT02944344.


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