Diagnostic value of mammography for accompanying non-mass enhancement on preoperative breast MRI

Background Successful surgical treatment for localized breast cancer can depend on accurate diagnosis for accompanying non-mass enhancement (NME) on preoperative breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic value of mammography for accompanying NME adjacent to index cancer on preoperative breast MRI Material and Methods Among 569 consecutive patients who underwent preoperative breast MRI from January 2016 to August 2018 for ultrasound-guided biopsy-proven breast cancer, 471 patients who underwent initial mammography and subsequent surgery were finally included. Two radiologists retrospectively reviewed preoperative MRI findings of the 471 patients and detected accompanying NME adjacent to index cancer. MRI, mammography, and histopathology findings of the accompanying NME were evaluated using Pearson’s chi-square test, Mann–Whitney U test, and logistic regression analysis. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of MRI and combined MRI and mammography was calculated in differentiating benign from malignant accompanying NME. The reference standard was surgical pathologic findings. Results MRI revealed 93 accompanying NME lesions in 92 (19.5%) of the 471 patients, showing 55 (59.1%) malignant and 38 (40.9%) benign lesions. On multivariate analysis, malignant NME lesions were more associated with mammography-positive findings ( P = 0.000), clumped or clustered ring internal enhancement ( P = 0.015), and extensive intraductal component presence of index tumor ( P = 0.007) compared with benign lesions. The AUC increased after correlation with mammography showing 0.649 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.533–0.765) for MRI and 0.833 (95% CI 0.747–0.919) for combined MRI and mammography. Conclusion Mammography is valuable in predicting malignancy for accompanying NME on preoperative breast MRI.

The impact of cancer-related diarrhea on changes in cancer therapy patterns.

12111 Background: We studied the impact that cancer related diarrhea (CRD) has on cancer therapy and treatment patterns, including persistence, discontinuation, adherence, and switching of chemotherapy and targeted therapies in patients with and without CRD. Methods: We performed a longitudinal observational study among adult ( > 18 yrs) patients with CRD identified by diagnosis codes or pharmacy claims compared to matched (1:1) non-CRD patients using claims data derived from the IQVIA PharMetrics Plus database. Index date was defined as the date of the first cancer claim, and we re-indexed patients based on CRD claims. Each patient had a 6-month pre-index period and a minimum 3-month follow-up post-index period. To adjust for selection bias and baseline differences, we directly matched the CRD patients to non-CRD patients. Treatment patterns were evaluated and stratified for the first cancer therapy with or without CRD (chemotherapy vs targeted therapy vs both targeted and chemotherapy). Discontinuation was defined as a 30-day gap for chemotherapy and a 14-day gap for targeted therapies from index therapy; switching was a new chemotherapy or targeted therapy prescription within 30 days following discontinuation of index therapy. We computed adherence as the proportion of days covered over the 12-month post-index period and persistence as mean number of days on index therapy. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the difference in risk of discontinuation of index therapy between CRD and non-CRD cohorts. Results: We evaluated a total of 104,135 matched pairs of CRD and non-CRD adult patients with solid or hematologic cancer; each group further grouped by those receiving either chemotherapy (n = 47,220), targeted therapy (n = 2,427), or both treatments (n = 5,313). Patients with CRD discontinued the index therapy more frequently than non-CRD patients for chemotherapy (81.5% vs 62.3%), targeted therapy (69.2% vs 64.3%) or both (96.0% vs 85.5%) (p < 0.0001). Also, the overall percentage of discontinuation (82.4% vs. 64.6%) was significantly higher among patients with CRD. The mean time to discontinuation (59.6±54.1 vs. 68.3±76.6 days) was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) in patients with CRD. The mean time to switch (72.0±48.6 vs. 96.9±84.0 days), mean persistence (95.1±98.1 vs. 154.3±142.7 days), and mean adherence (25.5%±37.2 vs. 47.9±41%) were significantly lower (all p < 0.0001) among patients with CRD compared to non-CRD. The percentage of patients requiring a dose titration for their index cancer therapy was significantly higher (21.8%) for the CRD cohort versus 8.5% for non-CRD patients (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Patients with CRD were 40% (adjusted) more likely to discontinue the index therapy than patients without CRD. The persistence of index cancer therapy and time to switch were also lower for patients with CRD. Strategies to control CRD and continue cancer therapy are urgently needed.

Contralateral Breast Primary in Breast Cancer Survivors-An Experience from a Tertiary Care Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Introduction: Improved life expectancy after breast cancer treatment has led to increased incidence of contralateral breast cancers. There are no well established guidelines for the management of these cancers. There is a paucity of Indian data regarding contralateral breast cancers. Aim: To describe the clinicopathological profile and prognostic outlook of patients with contralateral breast cancers. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study in which all patients who underwent surgery for non metastatic breast cancer between January 2006-December 2010 at Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, were identified. The follow-up data of these patients (6240 patients) were retrieved from medical records division in January 2020. The medical records of all these patients who developed contralateral breast cancer were analysed. Results: A total of 98 patients (1.57%) developed contralateral breast cancer. Most of the second breast cancers were presented at a lower stage than index cancer. Twenty five patients (25.51%) contralateral breast cancers were detected after five years. A total of 58 patients (59.18%) had interval cancer. Among them, 32 (55.17%) were detected by the treating doctor and 26 patients (44.83%) were symptomatic. The median duration of follow-up was 98 months (range 24-150 months). The five year Overall Survival (OS) was 80.5% and five year Disease Free Survival (DFS) was 62.8%. The patients who developed contralateral breast cancer within three years had lower five year OS when compared to those who developed after three years (75.5% vs 86.7% p=0.85). Five year OS was 74.8%, 81% and 85% for patient reported interval cancer, physician detected interval cancers and mammogram detected cancers respectively (p=0.9). Conclusion: Most contralateral breast cancers presented in a lower stage than index cancer. Contralateral breast cancer has got a reasonably good five year OS. There is no significant OS difference between mammogram detected second cancer and interval cancer. There was a need for more frequent clinical breast examination even after five years to detect contralateral primary in an early stage. Cost effectiveness of frequent follow- up mammogram examinations compared to clinical examination should be evaluated in future prospective studies.

Clinical Feasibility of Reduced Field-of-View Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Computed Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Technique in Breast Cancer Patients

Background: We evaluated the feasibility of the reduced field-of-view (rFOV) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with computed DWI technique by comparison and analysis of the inter-method agreement among acquired rFOV DWI (rFOVA), rFOV DWI with computed DWI technique (rFOVS), and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with breast cancer. Methods: A total of 130 patients with biopsy-proven breast cancers who underwent breast MRI from April 2017 to December 2017 were included in this study. The rFOVS were reformatted by calculation of the apparent diffusion coefficient curve obtained from rFOVA b = 0 s/mm2 and b = 500 s/mm2. Visual assessment of the image quality of rFOVA b = 1000 s/mm2, rFOVS, and DCE MRI was performed using a four-point grading system. Morphologic analyses of the index cancer was performed on rFOVA, rFOVS, and DCE MRI. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and contrast of tumor-to-parenchyma (TPC) were calculated. Results: Image quality scores with rFOVA, rFOVS, and DCE MRI were not significantly different (p = 0.357). Lesion analysis of shape, margin, and size of the index cancer also did not show significant differences among the three sequences (p = 0.858, p = 0.242, and p = 0.858, respectively). SNR, CNR, and TPC of DCE MRI were significantly higher than those of rFOVA and rFOVS (p < 0.001, p = 0.001, and p = 0.016, respectively). Significant differences were not found between the SNR, CNR, and TPC of rFOVA and those of rFOVS (p > 0.999, p > 0.999, and p > 0.999, respectively). Conclusion: The rFOVA and rFOVS showed nearly equivalent levels of image quality required for morphological analysis of the tumors and for lesion conspicuity compared with DCE MRI.

Effect of pre-existing conditions on bladder cancer stage at diagnosis: a cohort study using electronic primary care records in the UK

BackgroundPre-existing concurrent medical conditions (multimorbidity) complicate cancer diagnosis when they provide plausible diagnostic alternatives for cancer symptoms.AimTo investigate associations in bladder cancer between: first, pre-existing condition count and advanced-stage diagnosis; and, second, comorbidities that share symptoms with bladder cancer and advanced-stage diagnosis.Design and settingThis observational UK cohort study was set in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink with Public Health England National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service linkage.MethodIncluded participants were aged ≥40 years with an incident diagnosis of bladder cancer between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2015, and primary care records of attendance for haematuria, dysuria, or abdominal mass in the year before diagnosis. Stage at diagnosis (stage 1 or 2 versus stage 3 or 4) was the outcome variable. Putative explanatory variables using logistic regression were examined, including patient-level count of pre-existing conditions and ‘alternative-explanations’, indicating whether pre-existing condition(s) were plausible diagnostic alternatives for the index cancer symptom.ResultsIn total, 1468 patients (76.4% male) were studied, of which 399 (35.6%) males and 217 (62.5%) females had alternative explanations for their index cancer symptom, the most common being urinary tract infection with haematuria. Females were more likely than males to be diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.20 to 2.18; P = 0.001). Alternative explanations were strongly associated with advanced-stage diagnosis in both sexes (aOR 1.69; 95% CI = 1.20 to 2.39; P = 0.003).ConclusionAlternative explanations were associated with advanced-stage diagnosis of bladder cancer. Females were more likely than males to be diagnosed with advanced-stage disease, but the effect was not driven entirely by alternative explanations.

Long-term cancer survival in cohorts of U.S. health professionals.

12075 Background: Few studies have investigated long-term survival and causes of death among men and women diagnosed with major cancers. Methods: We estimated overall and cause-specific mortality rates for men diagnosed with prostate, lung and bronchus, colon and rectum, bladder, and melanoma cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study between 1986-2010+, and women with breast, lung and bronchus, colon and rectum, uterine corpus, thyroid, and ovarian cancer in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) between 1976-2010+ and NHS II between 1989-2010+. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to calculate cumulative mortality rates at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 years and competing risk methods were used to calculate cumulative cancer-specific mortality rates of major causes at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 years. Additionally, among women 40-year mortality rates were calculated. Results: Except for lung and ovarian, most major cancer patients are more likely to die from other causes than the index cancer. We observed two basic patterns for cumulative cancer-specific mortality rates. The first pattern is greatly diminished risk of index cancer-specific mortality 10 years or more following diagnosis - for colorectal cancer, cancer-specific mortality rate increased by less than 3% between 10 to 30- or 40-year following diagnosis (among men, from 35.1% to 36.7%; among women, from 34.8% to 37.7%), and this pattern also applied to bladder, melanoma, or uterine corpus cancer. The second one is sustained, but nevertheless low, excess risk - prostate cancer-specific mortality rate increased gradually and almost linearly from 5.3% to 15.1% after diagnosis from 5 to 30 years, and for breast cancer, it increased likewise from 7.2% to 18.9% after diagnosis from 5 to 40 years. Conclusions: Except for lung and ovarian cancers, patients diagnosed with major cancers were more likely to die from causes other than cancer. Colorectal, bladder, melanoma or uterine corpus cancer patients surviving more than 10 years after diagnosis are unlikely to ever die from that disease. [Table: see text]

Estimating Chemotherapy Use Among Patients With a Prior Primary Cancer Diagnosis Using SEER-Medicare Data

Cancer treatment studies commonly exclude patients with prior primary cancers due to difficulties in ascertaining for which site treatment is intended. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare patients 65 years and older diagnosed with an index colon or rectal cancer (CRC) or female breast cancer (BC) between 2004 and 2013 were included. Chemotherapy, defined as “any chemotherapy” and more restrictively as “chemotherapy with confirmatory diagnoses,” was ascertained based on claims data within 6 months of index cancer diagnosis by prior cancer history. Any chemotherapy use was slightly lower among patients with a prior cancer (CRC: no prior = 17.4%, prior = 16.1%; BC: no prior = 12.9%, prior = 12.0%). With confirmatory diagnoses required, estimates were lower, especially among patients with a prior cancer (CRC: no prior = 16.8%, prior = 13.6%; BC: no prior = 12.6%, prior = 11.0%). These findings suggest that patients with prior cancers can be included in studies of chemotherapy use; requiring confirmatory diagnoses can increase treatment assignment confidence.