A New TNM Classification for Breast Cancer to Meet the Demands of the Present and the Challenges of the Future

Evaluation of surgical treatment for incidental gallbladder carcinoma diagnosed during or after laparoscopic cholecystectomy: single center results

BACKGROUND

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the accepted standard management for benign gallbladder disease. LC rarely results in a diagnosis of incidental gallbladder carcinoma (IGBC). The aim of our study was to report our experience with IGBC diagnosed during or following LC.

METHODS

Between January 2008 and January 2015, 352 patients underwent LC at Iwakuni Clinical Center. Among these patients, 8 (2.3%) were diagnosed with IGBC. We evaluated their characteristics, surgical related variables, histopathological findings and surgical outcomes.

RESULTS

Patient median age was 71 (range 49-88) years, and 3 out of 8 were female. All patients with IGBC were Japanese. The grade of cancer was as follows: pT1a (3 cases), pT2 (4 cases) and pT3 (1 case). Two patients with pT2 disease underwent radical surgery. The median follow-up time of these patients was 24 (range 11-80) months. All patients are still alive and two of three patients who refused radical surgery have developed recurrence (liver metastases and recurrence in the peritoneum).

CONCLUSIONS

Although the number of cases was small, the results of this study further support the suggestion that gallbladder carcinoma may be curable if diagnosed as IGBC at an early stage. If the cancer has reached an advanced stage, radical surgery should be performed.

COP1, the negative regulator of ETV1, influences prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer

BACKGROUND

ETS variant 1 (ETV1) and E3 ubiquitin ligase constitutive photomorphogenetic 1 (COP1) have been proposed to be a pair of oncogene and tumor suppressor. However, the co-existing status of ETV1 and COP1 in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and their predictive role in determining the patient's outcome are uncertain.

METHODS

We examined the abundance of COP1 and ETV1 proteins and their clinicopathologic significance in archival TNBC tissues from 105 patients by tissue microarray. The potential function link between COP1 and ETV1 was observed in MDA-MB-231 cells by cell proliferation, invasion and migration assays.

RESULTS

ETV1 expression was higher in TNBC tissues compared to normal tissues, while COP1 was lower. ETV1 expression was negatively associated with COP1 abundance in TNBCs. Overexpression of COP1 led to significant reduction of ETV1 in MDA-MB-231 cells, and suppressed the cells migration and invasion. Rescue of ETV1 expression in the presence of COP1 notably regained the cells behaviors. ETV1-positive group was associated with a markedly poor overall survival. Meanwhile, we had observed favourable prognosis in COP1-positive cases for the first time. Multivariate analysis showed that COP1 together with ETV1 were independent risk factors in the prognosis of TNBC patients.

CONCLUSIONS

COP1 might be a tumor suppressor by negative regulating ETV1 in patients with TNBCs. COP1 and ETV1 are a pair of independent predictors of prognosis for TNBC cases. Thus, targeting them might be a potential strategy for personalized TNBC treatment.

Serum overexpression of microRNA-10b in patients with bone metastatic primary breast cancer

OBJECTIVE

Bone metastasis is a major complication of advanced breast cancer. The present prospective case-control study investigated the involvement of microRNA (miR)-10b in the development of bone metastasis arising from primary breast carcinoma.

METHODS

Serum miR-10b concentrations were determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in 122 patients with breast cancer, with or without bone metastases, and 59 age-matched healthy control subjects.

RESULTS

Serum miR-10b concentrations were significantly higher in patients with bone metastases than in patients without bone metastases or control subjects. Serum miR-10b had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the presence of bone metastases of 0.769, with 64.8% sensitivity and 69.5% specificity.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that serum miR-10b may be a useful biomarker for the identification of bone metastatic breast cancer.