Conservative Surgery in cT4 Breast Cancer: Single-Center Experience in the Neoadjuvant Setting

BACKGROUND

The diffusion of screening programs has resulted in a decrease of cT4 breast cancer diagnosis. The standard care for cT4 was neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NA), surgery, and locoregional or adjuvant systemic therapies. NA allows two outcomes: 1. improve survival rates, and 2. de-escalation of surgery. This de-escalation has allowed the introduction of conservative breast surgery (CBS). We evaluate the possibility of submitting cT4 patients to CBS instead of radical breast surgery (RBS) by assessing the risk of locoregional disease-free survival, (LR-DFS) distant disease-free survival (DDFS), and overall survival (OS).

METHODS

This monocentric, retrospective study evaluated cT4 patients submitted to NA and surgery between January 2014 and July 2021. The study population included patients undergoing CBS or RBS without immediate reconstruction. Survival curves were obtained using the Kaplan-Meyer method and compared using a Log Rank test.

RESULTS

At a follow-up of 43.7 months, LR-DFS was 70% and 75.9%, respectively, in CBS and RBS (p = 0.420). DDFS was 67.8% and 29.7%, respectively, (p = 0.122). OS was 69.8% and 59.8%, respectively, (p = 0.311).

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with major or complete response to NA, CBS can be considered a safe alternative to RBS in the treatment of cT4a-d stage. In patients with poor response to NA, RBS remained the best surgical choice.

Survival Analysis of Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer in Relation to Clinical and Histopathological Characteristics

Purpose

To evaluate the survival of patients with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and to correlate these survival rates with the histopathological parameters found in the resection specimen of the tumor.

Patients and Methods

This retrospective study was based on 27 patients that had been diagnosed and had undergone surgery in the 2nd General and Oncological Surgery Clinic of the County Emergency Hospital in Timisoara, Romania. Data about the patient group were collected from archived patient files over a period of eight years starting from January 2008. The collected data regarded age, tumor size and histopathological type and immunohistochemistry (IHC), presence or absence of tumor embolus in lymphatic or blood vessels and the presence or absence of distant metastases at the time of diagnosis. We evaluated the impact of tumor characteristics on the patients’ outcome.

Results

The 12-month survival rates postsurgery were significantly increased if tumors were <5 cm compared to those >5 cm (p=0.046), if nodal status was N0 vs N1–2 (p=0.039), as well as in cases where distant metastases were absent, compared to patients with distant metastases (p=0.001, α=0.001) and positive-hormone receptors (p=0.043). Survival was influenced neither by histopathological type (p=0.357) nor by the presence of tumor embolus in the resection specimen (p=0.250) and HER2 status (p=0.763). Survival at 12 months after surgery was equal between those with stage IIIB noninflammatory breast cancer (NIBC) and IBC. At 24 months after surgery, IBC cases presented a significantly lower probability of survival.

Conclusion

The prognosis of patients with IBC is reserved compared to NIBC, increased tumor size, positive lymph node, hormone receptors negative cases and distant metastases drastically decreasing survival rates.

The presentation, management and outcome of inflammatory breast cancer cases in the UK: Data from a multi-centre retrospective review

OBJECTIVES

Inflammatory Breast cancer (IBC) is a rare but aggressive form of breast cancer. Its incidence and behaviour in the UK is poorly characterised. We collected retrospective data from hospitals in the UK and Ireland to describe the presentation, pathology, treatment and clinical course of IBC in the UK.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Patients with IBC diagnosed between 1997-2014 at fourteen UK and Irish hospitals were identified from local breast unit databases. Patient characteristics, tumour pathology and stage, and details of surgical, systemic and radiotherapy treatment and follow-up data were collected from electronic patient records and medical notes.

RESULT

This retrospective review identified 445 patients with IBC accounting for 0.4-1.8% of invasive breast cancer cases. Median follow-up was 4.2 years. 53.2% of tumours were grade 3, 56.2% were oestrogen receptor positive, 31.3% were HER2 positive and 25.1% were triple negative. 20.7% of patients had distant metastases at presentation. Despite trimodality treatment in 86.4%, 40.1% of stage III patients developed distant metastases. Five-year overall survival (OS) was 61.0% for stage III and 21.4% for stage IV patients.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the largest series of UK IBC patients reported to date. It indicates a lower incidence than in American series, but confirms that IBC has a high risk of recurrence with poor survival despite contemporary multi-modality therapy. A national strategy is required to facilitate translational research into this aggressive disease.

A comparison of epidemiology, biology, and prognosis of inflammatory breast cancer in Japanese and US populations

BACKGROUND

The epidemiology of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in East Asia has not been fully investigated. We hypothesized the epidemiologic factors associated with IBC in Japanese populations are different from other populations. To determine this, we conducted a comparison study assessing multiple clinically relevant risk factors.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Patients diagnosed with IBC at St. Luke's International Hospital (SLIH) in Tokyo, Japan, and at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDA) in Houston, Texas, from 2003 to 2009 were identified via the electronic medical records. Stage IV patients were excluded. Epidemiological, biological, and overall survival (OS) data were collected and compared. After all patient populations were combined, Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Twenty-two patients at SLIH and 384 patients at MDA were identified. No differences were found for IBC between SLIH and MDA regarding age at diagnosis (P = .898), hormone receptor status (P = .144), overexpression of HER2 (P = .136), or OS (P = .323), however, BMI (P < .01) and nuclear grade (NG) (P < .01) in Japanese patients were lower than those of US patients. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed ER status and race were associated with OS.

CONCLUSION

Despite the small number of patients enrolled, IBC in a Japanese population demonstrated lower BMI and lower NG than IBC in a US population with no difference in survival. ER status and race were prognostic factors when the 2 populations were combined. To more robustly define IBC among East Asian individuals, we have started to register Japanese patients with an International IBC Registry.

[Clinical and outcome characteristics of inflammatory breast cancers in Brazzaville]

T4 breast cancers are a heterogeneous group. We conducted this study to analyze the differences between inflammatory and non-inflammatory T4 breast cancers. In a cross-sectional descriptive study over a period ranging from 2007 to 2010, we collected patients with T4 breast cancer. These patients were divided into two groups: a group of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and a group of breast cancer T4 non inflammatory (NIBC). We compared the epidemiological, clinical and outcome characteristics of the two groups. We identified 129 patients with T4 stage out of 343 patients with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Fifty-two IBC and 77 NIBC patients were observed. We did not found any epidemiological difference between the two groups. The two entities differed in tumor size (greater in the IBC group) and skin ulceration (less frequently found in the NIBC group). The only independent prognostic factor for failure of first line chemotherapy was, for both groups, non-compliance treatment intervals. The median overall survival in our study was 9 months in the IBC versus 13 months in the NIBC (p = 0.01, Log-rank test) patients. By multivariate analysis, IBC was the only independent prognostic factor negatively influencing the survival. IBC is a frequent entity in Brazzaville, Congo and displays a poor-prognosis.

What can we learn from the age- and race/ethnicity- specific rates of inflammatory breast carcinoma?

Inflammatory Breast Carcinoma (IBC), the most aggressive type of breast tumor with unique clinicopathological presentation, is hypothesized to have distinct etiology with a socioeconomic status (SES) component. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program data for 2004-2007, we compare incidence rates of IBC to non-inflammatory locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) among racial/ethnic groups with different SES. The analysis includes women 20-84 years of age. To examine evidence for the distinct etiology of IBC, we analyzed age-distribution patterns of IBC and non-inflammatory LABC, using a mathematical carcinogenesis model. Based on the Collaborative Staging Extension codes, 2,942 incident IBC cases (codes 71 and 73) and 5,721 non-inflammatory LABC cases (codes 40-62) were identified during the four-year study period. Age-adjusted rates of IBC among non-Hispanic White and Hispanic women were similar (2.5/100,000 in both groups). Similar rates were also found in non-inflammatory LABC in these two groups (4.8/100,000 and 4.2/100,000, respectively). In African-American women, the IBC (3.91/100,000) and non-inflammatory LABC (8.47/100,000) rates were greater compared with other ethnic/racial sub-groups. However, the ratio of rates of IBC/non-inflammatory LABC was similar among all the racial/ethnic groups, suggesting that African-American women are susceptible to aggressive breast tumors in general but not specifically to IBC. The mathematical model successfully predicted the observed age-specific rates of both examined breast tumors and revealed distinct patterns. IBC rates increased until age 65 and then slightly decreased, whereas non-inflammatory LABC rates steadily increased throughout the entire age interval. The number of critical transition carcinogenesis stages (m-stages) predicted by the model were 6.3 and 8.5 for IBC and non-inflammatory LABC, respectively, supporting different etiologies of these breast tumors.