Background and purpose:Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is an excellent model for evaluation of predictive parameters.The goal of predictive parameters is to select patients who would most likely benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy.The objective of this study was to investigate the predictive value of biological markers for the patients' response to neoadjuvant anthracycline combined with taxanes chemotherapy.Methods:We investigated 160 patients with breast cancer who underwent 4 cycles of neoadjuvant anthracycline combined with taxanes chemotherapy,retrospectively.The expression of estrogen receptors(ER),progesterone receptors(PgR),Her2,Topo-Ⅱ and Ki-67 proteins were detected by immunohistochemical assay in core-needle biopsy specimens.The associations between biological markers as well as clinical and pathologic responses were analyzed.Results:The overall clinical response was 85%,including 28.8%(46/160) with clinical complete response(cCR) and 56.3%(90/160) with clinical partial response.The pathological complete response(pCR) was 14.4%.In the univariate analysis,absence of ER,PgR expression and over-expression of Her-2 were predictive of the cCR and pCR(P

Objective:The study aimed to validate the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) nomogram and Stan-ford Online Calculator (SOC) prediction of non-sentinel lymph node (NSLN) metastasis in Chinese patients with sentinel lymph node (SLN)-positive breast cancers. Methods:The MSKCC nomogram and SOC were used to calculate the probability of NSLN metastasis in 120 breast cancer patients who were positive for SLNs. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for each model was evaluated. Patients with 10%and 90%probabilities of NSLN metastasis were separately examined. Results:The MSKCC and SOC predicted the likelihood of NSLN metastasis in a consecutive group of 120 patients with AUCs of 0.688 and 0.734, respective-ly. At the lowest probability cutoff value of 10%, the false-negative rates of MSKCC and SOC were both 4.4%, and the negative predic-tive values were 75.0%and 90.0%, respectively. When the highest probability cutoff value of 90%was used, the false-positive rates were 0.0%and 6.7%, and the positive predictive values were 100.0%and 68.8%, respectively. Conclusion:Results of the MSKCC no-mogram and SOC were inferior to those of previous studies on predicting NSLN metastasis in Chinese patients with breast cancers. The prediction ability of SOC was slightly superior to that of the MSKCC nomogram.

Objective To compare the efficacy and toxicity of different cycles of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer. Methods Seventy-five patients with locally advanced breast cancer were treated with epirubicin (Epi) plus paclitaxel (TAX, ET regimen). Two cycles were used in 39 patients (2 cycles group) and 4 cycles were used in 36 patients (4 cycles group). Results The overall response rate (RR) was 74% (29/39) in 2 cycles group and 94% (34/36) in 4 cycles group. One patient got clinically complete response (CR), 28 cases had partial response (PR),10 with no change (NC) in 2 cycles group, while 21 patients showed CR including 11 patients with pathologically complete response, 13 with PR, and 2 with NC in 4 cycles group. There was no progression to advanced stage in either groups. Axillary lymph nodes were palpable in all 75 patients before ET regimen, lymph nodes became non-palpable in 46% (18/39) cases in 2 cycles group and in 75% (27/36) cases in 4 cycles group. Toxicities including leukopenia, gastroenteric reactions were similar in the 2 groups, though arthralgia, myalgia, and neurotoxicity were more common in 4 cycles group than 2 cycles group. Conclusion Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy with ET regimen for 4 cycles were more effective than 2 cycles to down staging locally advanced breast cancer. Toxicities including arthralgia, myalgia, and neurotoxicity were more common in 4 cycles group than 2 cycles group.

Objective To observe the effects of electroacupuncture combined with edaravone on the conduction velocity of sciatic nerve and oxidative stress in rats with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Methods 60 Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were included. 10 of them were selected as normal group. The other rats were modeled as diabetic peripheral neuropathy with streptozotocin. 48 of them were randomly selected and divided into electroacupuncture group (n=12), edaravone group (n=12), electroacupuncture + edaravone group (n=12), and model group (n=12). The threshold temperature for wave tail was tested, the levels of superoxidase dismutase (SOD) and malonaldehyde (MDA) were determined, and the conduction velocity of sciatic nerve were measured, before, and 4 and 8 weeks after modeling. Results 8 weeks after modeling, the conduction velocity and SOD increased in the electroacupuncture group, edaravone group and electroacupuncture+edaravone group compared with the model group (P<0.01), with the MDA decrease (P<0.01), while it was improved more in the electroacupuncture+edaravone group than in the electroacupuncture group or the edaravone group (P<0.01). Conclusion Both electroacupuncture and edaravone can inhibit oxidative stress and improve nerve conduction velocity of the sciatic nerve in rats with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and it is more effective of combination.

OBJECTIVETo compare the efficacy and toxicity of two different regimens as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

METHODSForty-eight patients with stage II, III breast cancer as proved by cytology biopsy, were treated with either 5-Fu, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide (FEC) or epirubicin, paclitaxel (ET) regimens for 2 cycles every 3 - 4 weeks. Clinical responses in the breast and lymph nodes were assessed after 2 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Patients in FEC arm received combination of 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) 500 mg/m(2) by 4-hour continuous infusion on D1 and D8, epirubicin (EPI) 50 mg/m(2) by intravenous injection on D1, and cyclophosphamide (CTX) 500 mg/m(2) by intravenous injection on D1 and D8. Patients assigned to the ET arm received EPI 60 mg/m(2) by intravenous injection on D1, paclitaxel (TAX) 150 mg/m(2) by 3-hour continuous infusion on D2. All patients were treated by operation 2 weeks later and radiotherapy was added to some.

RESULTSFor primary tumor in the breast, the overall response rate (RR) was 50.0% (12/24) in FEC arm and 79.2% (19/24) in ET arm. One patient showed clinical complete response (cCR), 11 partial response (PR), 12 no change (NC) after the FEC therapy, while 1 patient showed CR, 18 PR, 5 NC after ET therapy. There was no pathologic complete response or progressive disease, though a higher proportion of RR was observed in stage II than stage III patients in these two groups. Clinically palpable axillary lymph nodes which had been found in all 48 patients before 2 cycles of treatment, 50.0% (12/24) in the FEC patients and 66.7% (16/24) in the ET patients became in-palpable. The major toxicity, including leukopenia, gastroenteric reactions, were similar in both groups, but alopecia was more severe and arthralgia, myalgia, neurotoxicity and flushing of face were the unique features of the ET regimen.

CONCLUSIONNeoadjuvant chemotherapy with two different regimens were effective to the primary tumor and axillary metastatic lymph nodes of breast cancer, and the side effects were tolerable. Higher efficacy and more side effects are observed in ET than in FEC regimen.

Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Cyclophosphamide ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Epirubicin ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Neoplasm Staging ; Paclitaxel ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Taxoids ; Treatment Outcome