Breast cancer research and treatment
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · May 2005
An axilla scoring system to predict non-sentinel lymph node status in breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node involvement.
Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is the current standard of care for breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node (SN) involvement. However, the SN is the only involved axillary node in a significant proportion of these patients. Here we examined factors predictive of non-SN involvement in patients with a metastatic SN, in order to develop a scoring system for predicting non-SN involvement. ⋯ In patients with invasive breast cancer and a positive SN, histological primary tumor size, the size of SN metastases, and the proportion of involved SNs among all identified SNs were independently predictive of non-SN involvement.
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · May 2005
Differential sensitivities of trastuzumab (Herceptin)-resistant human breast cancer cells to phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI-3K) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase inhibitors.
Her2 (erbB2/neu) is overexpressed in 25-30% of human breast cancers. Herceptin is a recombinant humanized Her2 antibody used to treat breast cancer patients with Her2 overexpression. Over a 5-month selection process, we isolated clones of BT474 (BT) human breast carcinoma cells (BT/Her(R)) that were resistant to Herceptin in vitro. ⋯ This suggests that BT/Her(R) subclones acquired a Herceptin-resistant mechanism of PI-3K signaling. BT/Her(R) subclones were also sensitive to the EGFR kinase inhibitor AG1478 in the presence of Herceptin, to the same extent as BT cells. The BT/Her(R) subclones provide new insights into mechanisms of Herceptin resistance and suggest new treatment strategies in combination with other inhibitors targeted to signal transduction pathways.
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · May 2005
Combined flow cytometry determination of S-phase fraction and DNA ploidy is an independent prognostic factor in node-negative invasive breast carcinoma: analysis of a series of 271 patients with stage I and II breast cancer.
To assess the significance of S-phase fraction (SPF) and DNA ploidy evaluated by DNA flow cytometry as prognostic markers in stage I or II breast cancer. ⋯ On univariate analysis, DFS and LCR were higher for DIP tumours. High SPF values were associated with shorter DFS. LCR, MFS, DFS, and OS rates were significantly different with an increasingly poorer prognosis from DL to AMH. On multivariate analysis, groups DL to AMH, histological node involvement and T stage were independently associated with MFS, and DFS. In N- patients, DL to AMH remained independent for MFS and DFS. For SBR III tumours, MFS and OS were significantly different in DL to AMH groups. These results strongly support the use of combined evaluation of DNA ploidy and SPF as independent parameters in clinical trials for N- stage I and II breast cancer.