Objective To evaluate the clinical value of percutaneous transchepatic biliary internal external drainage (PTBIED) in treatment of malignant biliary obstruction.Methods Forty-three patients with malignant biliary obstruction,including 14 cases with hilary metastasis cancer 8 with carcinoma of gallbladder,8 with hilary biliary cancer,13 with pancreatic cancer were treated with PTBIED.Results The technical success rate was 90%.The serum total bilirubin almost fell to normal level in 40 patients.Four cases (9.3%) died within 1 month, twenty (46.5%) cases died within 6 months,thirteen (30.2%) cases are still alive 12 months later.The complications cases mild hemobilia (8 cases,18.6%),bacteriemia(10 cases,23.3%),retrograde infection(6 included,14.0%).Conclusion PTBIED is an effective and safe therapeutic method for palliation of malignant biliary obstruction.

Objective To investigate the therapeutic procedures,indications and efficacy of breast-conserving therapy (BCT). Methods BCT was carried out in 148 patients with breast carcinoma in this hospital from January 1996 to October 2003.There were 5 patients in stage 0,85 patients in stage Ⅰ,55 patients in stage Ⅱ,and 3 patients in stage Ⅲ.The surgical treatment was quadrantectomy or local wide excision of tumor,combined with axillary lymph node dissection.Routine adjuvant irradiation,chemotherapy and hormone therapy were given postoperatively. Results Pathological examinations of breast specimens found no positive margins.Follow-up observations for a median of 54 months (range,2 ～ 84 months) revealed a local recurrence rate of 2 7% ( 4/148 ;3 patients in breast and 1 patient in axillary fossa).Distant metastasis occurred in 5 patients (3 4%) and 3 of them died.Sites of metastasis included lung,liver,meninges and bone.The duration from surgery to distant metastasis was 6 ～ 43 months.Evaluation of cosmetic results in 108 patients who had received BCT for at least 12 months showed that good outcomes were achieved in 32 4% of the patients (35/108),fair outcomes,in 49 1% of the patients (53/108),and poor,in 18 5% (20/108). Conclusions For patients with early stage breast carcinoma,and part of those with local advanced breast cancer who have received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and gotten downstaging effects,the effects of BCT is satisfactory.Standard excision,postoperative irradiation and systemic combination treatment are crucial to BCT.Most patients receiving BCT have good cosmetic results.

12 months postoperatively,and excellent results were obtained in 16.0% of the patients((4/25)),good in 40.0%(10/25),and poor in 44.0%(11/25). Conclusions For patients with locally advanced breast cancer previously treated with downstaging neoadjuvant chemotherapy,breast-conserving therapy offers satisfactory results.Strict adherence to technique and use of postoperative irradiation and systemic therapy are crucial to breast-conserving therapy.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of chemotherapy containing paclitaxel in patients with advanced breast cancer.Methods Chemotherapy containing paclitaxel was used in 30 patients with advanced breast cancer.Paclitaxel was administered by iv infusion at a dose of 135*!mg/m 2 in 3-hour every 3～4 weeks for an average of 4 sessions. All patients received premedication of dexamethasone, diphenhydramine and cimetidine to prevent allergic reactions. Results The overall response rate was 43%(13/30),including complete remission(CR) in 3(10%) cases and partial remission(PR) in 10(33%). The average duration of remission was 1.6 months in CR cases and 5 months in PR cases respectively.The major toxicity associated with paclitaxel administration includes neutropenia,myalgia,arthralgia, numbness of hands and feet,alopecia and flushing of face. Conclusion Paclitaxel is an effective agent for treatment of advanced breast cancer and its side effects are tolerable.

Objective To study the utilization of preoperative ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration(USFNA) for axillary lymphnode(ALN) metastasis in breast cancer and to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of the technique. Methods Forty ALNs in 40 armpit negative palpation highly suspective breast cancer patients underwent USFNA. The cytopathological results were compared with the histopathological results of sentinel lymphnode(SLN) biopsy or axillary lymphnode dissection(ALND). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value(PPV), negative predictive value(NPV) and diagnostic accuracy of USFNA for the ALN metastasis were analysed. Results All the 40 patients were confirmed with breast cancer by pathology. Sensitivity of USFNA was 52. 2%, specificity was 100%, PPV was 100%,NPV was 60. 7% and diagnostic accuracy was 72. 5%. 12(30% ) patients with positive cytology proceeded to ALND, avoiding SLN biopsy. Conclusions USFNA is a minimally invasive, highly specified technique for prediction of breast cancer ALN metastasis before operation.

Background and purpose:Triple-negative breast cancer(TNBC) is a high risk breast cancer that lacks the benefit from molecular targeted therapy.The purpose of this study was to compare the response to neoadjuvant taxanes and anthracyclines chemotherapy and survival in patients with TNBC and non-TNBC.Methods:One hundred and thirty-eight patients treated with 4 cycles of neoadjuvant taxanes,and anthracyclines chemotherapy were included in this retrospective study.TNBC is defined as the lack of estrogen receptor(ER),progesterone receptor(PR),and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(Her-2) expression by immunohistochemistry method.The clinical and pathologic response and neoadjuvant taxane and anthracycline chemotherapy,and the relationships of response and survival between TNBC and non-TNBC were analyzed.Results:Of the 138 patients,37(26.8%) were TNBC and 101(73.2%) were non-TNBC.The overall response rate(OR)was 85.5%(118/138),including 35.5% clinical complete response(cCR) and 50.0% clinical partial response(cPR).The pathologic complete response(pCR) was 21.7%.The cCR and pCR were 51.4% and 45.9% in patients with TNBC,significantly higher than patients with non-TNBC respectively(29.7% and 12.9%)(P0.05).In contrast,TNBC patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy had worse 5-year DFS and OS compared with non-TNBC(P

Background and purpose:Kiss-1 and nm23 have been identifi ed as tumor metastasis suppressor genes,and they have been associated with the metastatic potential of breast cancer.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of Kiss-1 and nm23 expression with lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.Methods:The expression of Kiss-1 and nm23 protein was detected by immunohistochemistry in 70 patients with breast cancer.Results:The positive rate of Kiss-1 and nm23 were 62.86% and 68.57%,38.46% and 50.00% in breast cancer patients with lymph node metastasis,markedly lower than the 77.27%,and 79.55% in patients without lymph node metastasis(P

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

Purpose: To study the short-term efficacy and toxicity of the neoajuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin (EPI) plus paclitaxel( TAX) in treatment of patients with breast cancer. Methods: 20 patients with stage Ⅱ,Ⅲ breast cancer were treated with paclitaxel plus epirubicin (TE) for 2 - 4 cycles every 3 weeks, their clinical response and the toxicity were assessed after 2-4 cycles of neoajuvant chemotherapy, and they are compared with those of the patients treated with vinorelbine plus epirubicin( VE) as neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Patients in TE arm received epirubicin 60 mg/m2 by intravenous injection on d 1, paclitaxel 150 mg/m2 by 3-hour continuous infusion on d 2, 3 weeks was 1 cycle. Patients assigned to the VE arm received epirubicin 60 mg/m2 by intravenous injection on d 1, vinorelbine 30 mg/m by intravenous injection on d 1 and d 8, 4 weeks was 1 cycle. All patients were treated by modified radical operation after neoajuvant chemotherapy. Results: The overall response rate( RR) was 80% (16/20) both in TE arm and VE arm. There were 3(15%) clinical complete response( cCR) and 2(10%) pathologic complete response ( pCR) in every arm. No patient showed progressive disease. A higher proportion of RR and pCR was observed in patients with 4 cycles of neoajuvant chemotherapy than those with 2 cycles in the two groups. The major toxicity, including leukopenia, gastroenteric reaction, flushing of face and phlebitis, were similar in both groups, but fatigue, alopecia and neurotoxicity were more severe in VE arm than in TE arm(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.