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: To study the effect of enalapril on inducible atrial fibrillation(AF) in old rats. Methods: Old male Wistar rats were randomly divided into control group(n = 12) and experimental group(n = 13). Rats in control group were fed routinely. Rats were fed with enalapril besides normal diet in experimental group for three months. Rats were then anesthetized, thoracotomy was performed and pericardium was opened to expose heart. Right atrium effective refractory period(ERP) was measured. Sinus conduction time (SCT) and sinus recovery time (SRT) were measured for evaluating sinus function. Interatrial conduction time(IACT) and atrium response to burst pacing were evaluated in vivo. Plasma angiotensinⅡ level and atrial tissue angiotensinⅡ level were determined by radioimmunoassay. Sections were cut from the tissue of atrium and stained with Masson trichrome. The ratio of the area occupied by interstitial to the total area was measured. Results: Contrast to control group,IACT and SRT were shorter in experimental group(P ＜ 0.01 and P ＜ 0.05 respectively). AF were induced in 9 rats in control group and 4 rats in experimental group(P ＜ 0.05). AngiotensinⅡconcentration was significantly decreased in right and left atrium tissues of experimental group compared with that in control group(P ＜ 0.01). A significant decrease in interstitial atrial fibrosis was presented in experimental group compared with that of control group(P ＜ 0.01). Conclusion: Inducible atrial fibrillation rate was decreased in old rats after treatment with enalapril. This effect maybe resulted from the inhibited local atrium renin-angiotensin system and improved sinus node function by enalapril.

Objective To analyze the prognostic factors and their influences on breast cancer patients with local-regional recurrence.Methods From Jan.1st,1998 to Dec.30th,2007,66 breast cancer patients with local-regional recurrence were treated at Breast Center of Peking University People's Hospital.The overall survival of the patients was analyzed using Kaplan Meier survival analysis and the prognostic factors such as primary tumor status,initial treatment,location of recurrence and treatment strategy after local recurrence were analyzed using Cox regression model.Results The median follow-up was 111 months.The median survival for the 66 patients with recurrence was 99 months,ranging from 3 to 188 months and 5-year survival rate was 60％.Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed statistically significant better survival for patients with unifocal primary tumor,undergoing initial breast conservation surgery,with local recurrence only and undergoing radical local treatment after local recurrence (P =0.003,P =0.017,P =0.050,and P =0.000 respectively).COX regression analysis showed that age at initial diagnosis and radical local treatment after recurrence had influences on post-recurrence survival of patients without distant metastasis (P =O.004 and 0.000 respectively).Conclusion The clinical and pathological features of primary tumor,initial surgery,site of recurrence and treatment strategy after recurrence have influences on prognosis of breast cancer patients with local-regional recurrence.

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 evaluate the frequency and predictive factors of nipple involvement in a large contemporary cohort of pa-tients and to improve patient selection for the preservation of the nipple-areolar complex. Methods: This retrospective study re-viewed the medical charts of 1,190 patients who underwent traditional mastectomy in Peking University People's Hospital between October 2008 and March 2014. Nipple involvement incidence was compared between the cases of clinically abnormal and clinically normal breasts. Other clinicopathological features and nipple status were analyzed to evaluate the association between these factors and occult nipple involvement. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify predictive factors. Results:Nipple in-volvement was detected in 6.0%of the mastectomy specimens. Meanwhile, incidence was 40.7%(22 out of 54) in clinically abnormal nipple cases and 4.3%(49 out of 1,136) in clinically normal nipple cases (χ2=121.9, P<0.001). Univariate analysis revealed that tumor lo-cation, tumor to nipple distance (≤2 and>2 cm), lymphovascular invasion, diameter (including carcinoma in situ;≤3.5 and>3.5 cm), T stage, N stage, and TNM stage were associated with occult nipple involvement. By logistic regression analysis, tumor location, tumor to nipple distance, T stage, and N stage were determined to be the independent predictors of nipple involvement. Conclusion:Clinical abnormalities of the nipples are reliable and potent predictors of nipple pathology. The cases with peripheral tumor, T1-T2 stage, and N0-N1 stage have lower probability of occult nipple involvement.

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

Objective To evaluate the long-term safety of sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue in breast cancer patients.Methods 198 breast cancer patients with clinical negative axillary lymph node received sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue.Patients were followed up and regional lymph node recurrence,disease free survival(DFS) and overall survival(OS) were analyzed.Results After a median follow-up of 70 months,2 patients had ipsilateral lymph node recurrence with a regional lymph node recurrence rate of 1％ (2/198).14 patient had recurrence or metastasis and 6 patients died of distant metastasis.The estimated 6 years DFS was 94.4％ and OS was 96.5％.The incidence of arm lymphoedema within patients who received axillary lymph node dissection was 4.5％ and it was 2.5％ in patients who received sentinel lymph node biopsy.Conclusions The sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue was safe and reliable method for further staging axillary lymph node stastus.