[High risk of cardiac dysfunction after treatment of secondary acute myeloid leukemia following chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer]

Problems to affect long-term survival for breast cancer patients: An observational study of subsequent lung/bronchus malignancies

The overall survival of breast cancer (BC) patients increased significantly for decades; however, their long-term survival was seriously impaired by subsequent malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the risk factors of subsequent lung / bronchus primary malignancies among BC survivors.A total of 535,941 BC female survivors diagnosed were identified by using SEERStat database in 1973 to 2014. Among them, 9398 had subsequent lung/bronchus malignancies. Clinico-pathological risk factors were evaluated for the development of subsequent lung/bronchus cancer. The main measures were the incidence and risk factors of subsequent lung/bronchus primaries. Logistic regression analysis and survival analysis were performed.Overall, among 535,941 BC survivors, 73,394 (13.69%) patients with subsequent primaries were identified from 1973 to 2014. The overall medium second tumor-free time was 72 months. Estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, progesterone receptor (PR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)-positive, radiotherapy, and surgery treatment were protective factors against overall subsequent malignancies, whereas HER2/hormone receptor (HR) subtype triple negative, increasing tumor size, low differentiation grade, and high TNM stage were risk factors associated with overall subsequent malignancies. Surgical implantation reconstruction was risk factor for lung/bronchus cancer. Even though BC patients had a favorite 5-year survival, their long-term survival was affected by subsequent malignancies, especially for lung/bronchus cancer with high mortality.Nearly 13% BC survivors suffered from subsequent malignancies. Increased risk was related to HER2/HR triple negative and advanced TNM stages. Radiotherapy and surgery were protective factors. Our findings may inform the subsequent cancer counseling of female BC survivors.

Polyphenol-rich Avicennia marina leaf extracts induce apoptosis in human breast and liver cancer cells and in a nude mouse xenograft model

Avicennia marina is the most abundant and common mangrove species and has been used as a traditional medicine for skin diseases, rheumatism, ulcers, and smallpox. However, its anticancer activities and polyphenol contents remain poorly characterized. Thus, here we investigated anticancer activities of secondary A. marina metabolites that were purified by sequential soxhlet extraction in water, ethanol, methanol, and ethyl acetate (EtOAc). Experiments were performed in three human breast cancer cell lines (AU565, MDA-MB-231, and BT483), two human liver cancer cell lines (HepG2 and Huh7), and one normal cell line (NIH3T3). The chemotherapeutic potential of A. marina extracts was evaluated in a xenograft mouse model. The present data show that EtOAc extracts of A. marina leaves have the highest phenolic and flavonoid contents and anticancer activities and, following column chromatography, the EtOAc fractions F2-5, F3-2-9, and F3-2-10 showed higher cytotoxic effects than the other fractions. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR profiles indicated that the F3-2-10 fraction contained avicennones D and E. EtOAc extracts of A. marina leaves also suppressed xenograft MDA-MB-231 tumor growth in nude mice, suggesting that EtOAc extracts of A. marina leaves may provide a useful treatment for breast cancer.

[Impact of taxanes in the adjuvant setting of node-negative breast cancers]

The use of regimens with adjuvant taxanes reduces the risk of recurrence and improves survival in patients with node-positive breast cancer, but the use of taxanes in node-negative breast cancer is still to be defined. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of taxanes in high-risk node-negative breast cancer. Two categories of studies were reviewed: studies that evaluated both node-positive and node-negative breast cancers, and studies that included only high-risk node-negative breast cancers. Three phase-III studies that evaluated both negative and positive nodes did not show any benefit of the use of taxanes according to the node-negative subgroup analyses, versus two studies (European Cooperative Trial in Operable Breast Cancer [ECTO] et Grupo Español de Investigación del Cáncer de Mama [GEICAM]) that showed a significant difference in disease-free survival. In view of these studies, the role of taxanes in node-negative breast cancer is still controversial and the results of the ongoing trials may respond to this subject.