Clinical breast cancer
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Clinical breast cancer · Oct 2015
Efficacy of Scalp Cooling in Preventing Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Adjuvant Docetaxel and Cyclophosphamide Chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) is a distressing adverse effect of many chemotherapy agents. The TC (docetaxel [Taxotere] and cyclophosphamide) chemotherapy regimen is typically associated with complete alopecia. Scalp cooling with cold caps has been reported to minimize or prevent CIA. We conducted a prospective study to assess efficacy of scalp cooling in preventing CIA among women receiving adjuvant TC chemotherapy for breast cancer. ⋯ Scalp cooling with cold caps appears to be effective in preventing CIA among the majority of women undergoing treatment with TC chemotherapy.
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Clinical breast cancer · Oct 2015
Role of the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient in the Prediction of Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With Locally Advanced Breast Cancer.
We evaluated the diagnostic performance of the baseline diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in the prediction of a complete pathologic response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with breast cancer stratified according to the tumor phenotype. ⋯ The pretreatment ADC value is not capable of predicting the pCR in the overall population of patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Nonetheless, an ameliorated diagnostic performance was observed in specific phenotype subgroups (ie, TN and HER2(+) tumors).
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Clinical breast cancer · Oct 2015
Comparative StudyEconomic Evaluations of Everolimus Versus Other Hormonal Therapies in the Treatment of HR+/HER2- Advanced Breast Cancer From a US Payer Perspective.
The objective of the study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of EVE+EXE versus endocrine monotherapies in the treatment of postmenopausal women with HR(+), HER2(-) ABC after failure of treatment with nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitors from a US third-party payer perspective. ⋯ Everolimus with EXE demonstrated QALY improvements compared with 3 other endocrine monotherapies. Benchmarked by the economic value of other novel cancer therapies, EVE+EXE might be considered a cost-effective option compared with endocrine therapies for HR(+)/HER2(-) ABC.
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Clinical breast cancer · Oct 2015
Equivalent Survival With Mastectomy or Breast-conserving Surgery Plus Radiation in Young Women Aged < 40 Years With Early-Stage Breast Cancer: A National Registry-based Stage-by-Stage Comparison.
Studies have shown that young patients with early-stage breast cancer (BC) are increasingly undergoing mastectomy instead of breast-conserving therapy (BCT) consisting of lumpectomy and radiation. We examined the difference in outcomes in young women (aged < 40 years) who had undergone BCT versus mastectomy. ⋯ The results of our study suggest that although young age might be a poor prognostic factor for BC, no evidence has shown that these patients will have better outcomes after mastectomy than after BCT.
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Clinical breast cancer · Oct 2015
ReviewHormone Receptor Status and HER2 Expression in Primary Breast Cancer Compared With Synchronous Axillary Metastases or Recurrent Metastatic Disease.
Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2/neu are the most important tissue markers in the management of breast cancer, in the adjuvant setting and in the setting of metastatic disease. Many studies have demonstrated a discordance of expression between primary breast cancer, synchronous axillary metastases, and metastatic sites. The aim of this article is to review studies on discordance of expression of these predictive parameters to better understand the importance of a reassessment of biomolecular status to modify treatment strategies. ⋯ The loss of PR is more frequent than ER loss. High HER2 concordance between primary tumors and axillary lymph node or distant metastases has been demonstrated in many studies; in the discordant cases, it is more frequent to have HER2-positive metastases with negative primary tumors than the opposite. A reassessment of biomolecular status in residual tumors after neoadjuvant treatment or in metastatic sites is advisable, whenever it is possible, to correct/modify the treatment schedule and to estimate the actual prognosis.