Breast cancer research and treatment
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Apr 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyEpidermal growth factor receptor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 are specific biomarkers in triple-negative breast cancer. Results from a controlled randomized trial with long-term follow-up.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNB) has poor prognosis and moreover patients with TNB do not benefit from established targeted drugs with endocrine therapy or trastuzumab. The aim of the study was to analyze the prevalence of candidate biomarkers in tumors from patients with TNB. Tissue microarrays were prepared from primary tumors from premenopausal breast cancer patients (500/564) randomized to adjuvant tamoxifen or no adjuvant treatment. ⋯ High VEGFR2 expression was significantly correlated to decreased BCSS in TNB patients. TNB was associated with decreased BCSS and clinicopathological characteristics of an aggressive tumor type. High VEGFR2 expression, EGFR expression, and EGFR gene copy number were significantly correlated to TNB, supporting their role as putative candidate biomarkers for selection of targeted therapy in TNB.
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Apr 2010
Meta AnalysisPolymorphisms in the BRCA1 and ABCB1 genes modulate menopausal hormone therapy associated breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women.
Menopausal hormone therapy (HT) is associated with an increased breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women. In this study, we investigated genetic effect modification of HT associated breast cancer risk in 3,149 postmenopausal breast cancer patients and 5,489 controls from the two German population-based case-control studies MARIE and GENICA. Twenty-eight polymorphisms of 14 candidate genes including two drug and hormone transporter genes (ABCB1/MDR1 and SHBG), four genes involved in cell cycle regulation (BRCA1, P21/CDKN1A, STK15/AURKA and TP53), six cytokine genes (IGFBP3, IL6, TGFB1, TNF, LTA and IGF1), and two cytokine receptor genes (EGFR and ERBB2) were genotyped using validated methods. ⋯ Additionally, risk associated with estrogen monotherapy was modified by BRCA1_rs799917. We observed a trend with increasing minor T alleles leading to the highest risk in homozygous carriers of the minor allele [OR (95% CI) = 1.17 (0.98-1.39), 1.06 (0.98-1.14), and 1.02 (0.94-1.11) for homozygous minor, heterozygous, and homozygous major allele carriers, respectively; P (interaction) = 0.032]. Our results suggest that genetic variants in ABCB1 and BRCA1 may modify the effect of HT on postmenopausal breast cancer risk.
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Apr 2010
ReviewTai chi for breast cancer patients: a systematic review.
The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of tai chi for supportive breast cancer care. Eleven databases were searched from inception through December 2009. Controlled trials testing tai chi in patients with breast cancer that assessed clinical outcome measures were considered. ⋯ All of the CCTs had a high risk of bias. Collectively, the existing trial evidence does not show convincingly that tai chi is effective for supportive breast cancer care. Future studies should be of high methodological quality, with a particular emphasis on including an adequate control intervention.
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Apr 2010
ReviewAromatase inhibitor-induced arthralgia in early breast cancer: what do we know and how can we find out more?
Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are a standard of care for the adjuvant treatment of hormone responsive early carcinoma of the breast as demonstrated in a number of large international phase III randomised trials. Arthralgia was a somewhat unexpected side effect of this class of agents and has proven to be potentially problematic in clinical practice. Although rates of up 35% have been reported in the randomised trials, the figure has been much higher in subsequent case series. ⋯ The potential aetiological mechanisms and evidence for aromatase inhibitor-induced arthralgia (AIA) are reviewed in this article. Looking forward, it is now important that prospective clinical trials are well designed to evaluate this syndrome and potential therapeutic strategies to circumvent it. Radiological imaging and biochemical analyses may help our understanding of AIA and these are discussed.