Tumor Size and Lobular Histology Predict for Higher Pathologic Nodal Stage Regardless of Clinical Presentation of Nodal Disease in Patients With Breast Cancer

Purpose: Omission of axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is considered for patients with sentinel lymph node-positive (SLN+) breast cancer, but ALND remains the standard of care for clinically node-positive (cN+) patients treated with surgery first. Here, we evaluate differences in patient and tumor characteristics and pathologic nodal stage in patients with positive lymph nodes who underwent ALND. Methods: Retrospective chart review from 2010-2019 identified three groups of patients who underwent ALND for positive nodes: SLN+ (positive node identified at SLN biopsy), cNUS (abnormal preoperative US and biopsy), and cNpalp (palpable adenopathy). Patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy or presented with axillary recurrence were excluded. Results: Of 218 patients, 107 were SLN+, 43 were cNUS, and 68 were cNpalp. SLN+ patients compared with cNpalp were more likely to be younger (56 vs 64,p<.01), pre-menopausal (39%vs15%,p<.01), and white (62%vs37%,p<.01) with more tumors that were progesterone receptor-positive (6%vs21%,p=.02), low grade (35%vs6%,p<.01) and without lymphovascular invasion (11%vs27%,p=.02). SLN+ patients had more pN1 disease than cNUS and cNpalp (67.3% vs 39.5% vs 42.6%, p<.01). Greater tumor size and lobular histology were significantly associated with higher nodal stage in univariable regression analysis of SLN+ patients as well as a pooled analysis of the three clinical groups.Conclusion: Patient and tumor characteristics differ on either end of the nodal spectrum, with cNpalp patients having higher risk features than SLN+ patients. These higher risk features have historically resulted in ALND for patients with clinically positive nodes. However, only tumor size and histology are associated with higher pathologic nodal stage.

Prognostic and predictive effects of circulating and disseminated tumor cells in breast cancer: A National Cancer Database (NCDB) analysis.

1029 Background: Alongside other biomarkers, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) could contribute to our growing understanding of the breast cancer (BC) “liquid biopsy”. This study evaluated 1) clinicopathologic factors associated with CTCs and DTCs, 2) the prognostic value of CTCs and DTCs by disease stage, 3), the efficacy of chemotherapy by CTC and DTC status. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of BC using the 2004-2016 National Cancer Database (NCDB). The NCDB defines CTCs as isolated tumor cells (ITCs) found in the blood (using assays such as reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction or immunohistochemistry) distant from the breast. DTCs are ITCs found in the bone marrow or other non-regional tissues. To evaluate variables associated with CTCs or DTCs, we used chi-squared and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests (univariate), followed by multivariate logistic regression. Consequently, we included CTC or DTC status in a multivariate, stage-by-stage Cox regression analysis for overall survival (OS). After adjusting for receptor status and staging, we used the Kaplan-Meier method to explore chemotherapy efficacy in CTC- or DTC-positive vs. CTC- or DTC-negative subsets. Results: 4,846 cases reported CTC-status, 1,454 (21.1%) of which were positive. 4,993 cases reported DTC-status, 1,400 (20.3%) of which were positive. Factors associated with positive CTC status were HER2-positivity, progesterone receptor-positivity, lobular histology and N-staging. Factors associated with positive DTC status were being White, HER2-positivity, lobular histology and N-staging. Positive CTC-status was associated with poor OS overall in late-stage (III and IV) (HR 1.477, 95% CI: 1.129-1.931, p = 0.004) but not early-stage BC (0, I, II) (p = 0.110) disease. DTC-status was not associated with OS in early-stage or late-stage subsets. In hormone receptor (HR)-positive disease, chemotherapy was associated with better OS when CTC-status was also positive both in early-stage (p = 0.003) and late-stage (p = 0.023) disease. In a subset of the same BC subtype with negative CTC-status, however, chemotherapy conferred no survival benefit (p = 0.638 for early-stage, p = 0.501 for late-stage). DTC status was not a significant predictor of chemotherapy efficacy in early or late-stage, HR+ disease. Conclusions: This study suggests that CTC-status is a stronger prognostic factor at later stages of BC; yet it can also help guide management of early-stage disease as it appears predictive for chemotherapy benefit.

Breast cancer metastases to the stomach and colon mimicking primary gastrointestinal cancer: Four cases and literature review

Intraluminal gastric and colonic metastases of the breast cancer are very rare and may sometimes prove a diagnostic dilemma to distinguish from primary gastric and colonic cancers. It is important to make the distinction in order to navigate the proper treatment approach, which is a systemic treatment rather than surgery if the disease is me- tastatic. The spread to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is more frequent in lobular histology and according to a number of investigators, it is related to a particular tropism of lobular cells toward gastrointestinal mucosa. Any region of GI tract may be involved, from the tongue to the anus. Over the last decade, among the 1,100 breast cancer cases registered at our institutions, we diagnosed four patients with breast cancer who had metastases to the stomach and/or colon and presented symptoms that simulated primary gastrointestinal cancer. A total of 84 out of the 1,100 patients experienced invasive lobular histology. Among the four patients with GI tract metastases, three were diagnosed with lobular hist- ology – two of whom had the signet ring cell subtype. The remaining patient was diagnosed with triple negative invasive ductal carcinoma; however, it clinically resembled invasive lobular carcinoma. Clinical and pathological features of these cases, as well as the review of related literature are discussed in this report.