Search

Abstract Background Disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) in the bone marrow of patients with breast cancer have been identified as an independent predictor of poor prognosis in patients with non-metastatic disease. This prospective study aimed to evaluate the presence and prognostic value of DTCs in the bone marrow of female patients with primary breast cancer. Methods Between 1999 and 2003, bone marrow aspirates were obtained from patients at the time of surgery for primary invasive breast cancer. DTCs in bone marrow were identified using monoclonal antibodies against cytokeratins for detection of epithelial cells. The detection of DTCs was related to clinical follow-up with distant disease-free survival (DDFS) and breast cancer-specific survival as endpoints. Bone marrow aspirates from adult healthy bone marrow donors were analysed separately. Results DTCs were analysed in 401 patients, and cytokeratin-positive cells were found in 152 of these (38%). An immunofluorescence (IF) staining procedure was used in 327 patients, and immunocytochemistry (IC) was performed in 74 patients. The IF-based method resulted in 40% DTC-positive cases, whereas 30% were positive using IC (p = 0.11). The presence of DTCs in bone marrow was not significantly related to patient or tumour characteristics. The presence of DTCs was not a prognostic factor for DDFS (IF: hazards ratio [HR], 2.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.63–2.2; p = 0.60; IC: HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.09–8.1; p = 0.88). Significant prognostic factors were lymph node metastases, oestrogen receptor positivity, Nottingham histological grade, and tumour size using Cox univariate analysis. The analyses were positive for epithelial cells in bone marrow from adult healthy donors in 19 (25%) samples. Conclusions The detection of DTCs in bone marrow in primary breast cancer was previously shown to be a predictor of poor prognosis. We were not able to confirm these results in a prospective cohort including unselected patients before the standard procedure was established. Future studies with a standardised patient protocol and improved technique for isolating and detecting DTCs may reveal the clinical applications of DTC detection in patients with micrometastases in the bone marrow.

Background: Prognostic factors in breast cancer are often measured on a continuous scale, but categorized for clinical decision-making. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate if accounting for continuous non-linear effects of the three factors age at diagnosis, tumor size, and number of positive lymph nodes improves prognostication. These factors will most likely be included in the management of breast cancer patients also in the future, after an expected implementation of gene expression profiling for adjuvant treatment decision-making.Methods: Four thousand four hundred forty seven and 1132 women with primary breast cancer constituted the derivation and validation set, respectively. Potential non-linear effects on the log hazard of distant recurrences of the three factors were evaluated during 10 years of follow-up. Cox-models of successively increasing complexity: dichotomized predictors, predictors categorized into three or four groups, and predictors transformed using fractional polynomials (FPs) or restricted cubic splines (RCS), were used. Predictive performance was evaluated by Harrell's C-index.Results: Using FP-transformations, non-linear effects were detected for tumor size and number of positive lymph nodes in univariable analyses. For age, non-linear transformations did, however, not improve the model fit significantly compared to the linear identity transformation. As expected, the C-index increased with increasing model complexity for multivariable models including the three factors. By allowing more than one cut-point per factor, the C-index increased from 0.628 to 0.674. The additional gain, as measured by the C-index, when using FP- or RCS-transformations was modest (0.695 and 0.696, respectively). The corresponding C-indices for these four models in the validation set, based on the same transformations and parameter estimates from the derivation set, were 0.675, 0.700, 0.706, and 0.701.Conclusions: Categorization of each factor into three to four groups was found to improve prognostication compared to dichotomization. The additional gain by allowing continuous non-linear effects modeled by FPs or RCS was modest. However, the continuous nature of these transformations has the advantage of making it possible to form risk groups of any size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:The St Gallen surrogate definition of the intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer consist of five subgroups based on estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2), and Ki-67. PgR and Ki-67 are used for discriminating between the ‘Luminal A-like’ and ‘Luminal B-like (HER2-negative)’ subtypes. Histological grade (G) has prognostic value in breast cancer; however, its relationship to the St Gallen subtypes is not clear. Based on a previous pilot study, we hypothesized that G could be a primary discriminator for ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancers that were G1 or G3, whereas Ki-67 and PgR could provide additional prognostic information specifically for patients with G2 tumors. To test this hypothesis, a larger patient cohort was examined. Patients and methods:Six hundred seventy-one patients (≥35 years of age, pT1-2, pN0-1) with ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer and complete data for PgR, Ki-67, G, lymph node status, tumor size, age, and distant disease-free survival (DDFS; median follow-up 9.2 years) were included. Results:‘Luminal A-like’ tumors were mostly G1 or G2 (90%) whereas ‘Luminal B-like’ tumors were mostly G2 or G3 (87%) and corresponded with good and poor DDFS, respectively. In ‘Luminal B-like’ tumors that were G1 (n = 23), no metastasis occurred, whereas 14 of 40 ‘Luminal A-like’ tumors that were G3 metastasized. In the G2 subgroup, low PgR and high Ki-67 were associated with an increased risk of distant metastases, hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8 (0.95–3.4) and 1.5 (0.80–2.8), respectively. Conclusions:Patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative/G1 breast cancer have a good prognosis, similar to that of ‘Luminal A-like’, while those with ER-positive/HER2-negative/G3 breast cancer have a worse prognosis, similar to that of ‘Luminal B-like’, when assessed independently of PgR and Ki-67. Therapy decisions based on Ki-67 and PgR might thus be restricted to the subgroup G2. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous subgroup of breast cancer with poor prognosis and no targeted therapy available. Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are emerging targets in anticancer therapy and many RTK-inhibiting drugs are currently being developed. The aim of this study was to elucidate if there is a correlation between the protein expression of three RTKs c-KIT, VEGFR2 and PDGFRα, their gene copy number, and prognosis in TNBC compared to non-TNBC. Methods: Tumor tissue samples from patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer were stained with immunohistochemistry (IHC) for protein assessment, and with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for gene copy number determination. Breast cancer mortality (BCM), measured from the date of surgery to death, was used as endpoint. Results: The cohort included 464 patients, out of which 34 (7.3%) had a TNBC. High expression of the three RTKs was more common in TNBC compared to non-TNBC: c-KIT 49% vs. 10% (P<0.001), PDGFRα 32% vs. 19% (P = 0.07) and VEGFR2 32% vs. 6% (P<0.001). The odds ratio (OR) of c-KIT, VEGFR2 and PDGFRα positivity, adjusted for tumor characteristics, was 6.8, 3.6 and 1.3 times higher for TNBC than for non-TNBC. 73.5% of the TNBC had high expression of at least one of the three investigated receptors, compared to 30.0% of the non-TNBC (P<0.001). Survival analysis showed no significant difference in BCM for TNBC patients with high vs. low c-KIT, PDGFRα or VEGFR2 protein expression. 193 (42%) tumors were evaluated with FISH. No correlation was seen between increased gene copy number and TNBC, or between increased gene copy number and high protein expression of the RTK. Conclusion: c-KIT, VEGFR2 and PDGFRα show higher protein expression in TNBC compared to non-TNBC. Further investigation clarifying the importance of these RTKs in TNBC is encouraged, as they are possible targets for anticancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The St Gallen surrogate molecular subtype definitions classify the oestrogen (ER) positive breast cancer into the luminal A and luminal B subtypes according to proliferation rate and/or expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) with differences in prognosis and chemo-responsiveness. Primary tumours and lymph node metastases might represent different malignant clones, but in the clinical setting only the biomarker profile of the primary tumour is used for selection of adjuvant systemic treatment. The present study aimed to classify primary breast tumours and matched lymph node metastases into luminal A, luminal B, HER2-positive and triple-negative subtypes and compare the distributions. Methods Eighty-five patients with available tumour tissue from both locations were classified. The distribution of molecular subtypes of primary tumours and corresponding lymph node metastases were compared, and related to 5-year distant disease-free survival (DDFS). Results The St Gallen molecular subtypes were discordant between primary tumours and matched lymph node metastases in 11% of the patients (p = 0.06). The luminal A subtype in the primary tumour shifted to a subtype with a worse prognostic profile in the lymph node metastases in 7 of 45 cases (16%) whereas no shift in the opposite direction was observed (0/38) (p = 0.02). All subtypes had an increased hazard for developing distant metastasis during the first 5 years after diagnosis in both primary breast tumours and matched lymph node metastases, compared with the luminal A subtype. Conclusion The classification according to the St Gallen molecular subtypes in primary tumours and matched lymph node metastases, implicates a shift to a more aggressive subtype in synchronous lymph node metastases compared to the primary breast tumour. The selection of systemic adjuvant therapy might benefit from taking the molecular subtypes in the metastatic node into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]