Breast cancer research and treatment
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Sep 2005
Adjuvant ovarian suppression versus chemotherapy for premenopausal, hormone-responsive breast cancer: quality of life and efficacy tradeoffs.
Recent clinical trials suggest that adjuvant ovarian suppression may be an equally effective and less toxic alternative to systemic chemotherapy in premenopausal women with hormone-responsive breast cancer. We used a decision-analytic framework to evaluate tradeoffs between efficacy and quality of life in the choice between these treatments. ⋯ If adjuvant chemotherapy and ovarian suppression have similar efficacy, then there may be a subgroup of women for whom quality-of-life considerations dominate the choice of treatment. However, small differences in the relative efficacy of these therapies have a substantial impact on treatment choice, regardless of side effects and menopausal transitions.
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Sep 2005
Systemic effects of surgery: quantitative analysis of circulating basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) in patients with breast cancer who underwent limited or extended surgery.
To assess if feature, extent and duration of surgery could influence levels of systemic proangiogenic cytokines vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta). ⋯ Angiogenic cytokines perioperative levels could be increased on 5th day (D(+5)) by extent of surgery and should induce perioperative stimulation of residual cancer cells. A better understanding of the time interval during which the sequelae of events in wound healing occur may be the basis for defining new therapeutic strategies that can interfere with tumor outgrowth sparing wound healing processes.
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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.