PURPOSE: To investigate clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes of male breast cancer (MBC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 20 MBC patients in comparison with female ductal carcinoma treated at Yonsei University Severance Hospital from July 1985 to May 2007. Clinicopathological features, treatment patterns, and survival were investigated. RESULTS: MBC consists of 0.38% of all breast cancers. The median age was 56 years. The median symptom duration was 10 months. The median tumor size was 1.7cm, 27.8% showed node metastasis, and 71.4% were estrogen receptor positive. All 20 cancers were arisen from ductal cells. No lobular carcinoma was found. The incidence of stages 0, I, II, and III in patients were 2, 10, 4, and 3, respectively. All patients underwent mastectomy. One with invasive cancer did not receive axillary node dissection and stage was not exactly evaluated. Adjuvant treatments were determined by pathologic parameters and stage. Clinicopathological parameters and survival rates of MBC were comparable to those of female ductal carcinoma. CONCLUSION: The onset age of MBC was 10 years older and symptom duration was longer than in female patients. No difference in outcomes between MBC and female ductal carcinoma suggests that the biology of MBC is not different from that of females. Therefore, education, an appropriate system for early detection, and adequate treatment are necessary for improving outcomes.
Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms/mortality/pathology/therapy ; Breast Neoplasms, Male/mortality/*pathology/therapy ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/mortality/pathology/therapy ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence and features of non-endometrial cancers in Thai endometrial cancer (EC) patients. METHODS: EC patients treated in our institution were identified and the following data were collected: age, EC stage, histopathology, adjuvant therapy, other cancers, living status, and cause of death. RESULTS: The mean age of the 344 patients was 56.8+/-10.8 years. Fifty (14.5%) had other synchronous and metachronous cancers. Mean ages of the patients with or without other cancers were not significantly different, 55.7+/-10.04 years versus 57.1+/-11.0 years, respectively (p=0.358). History of any cancer in the family and tumor in the lower uterine segment were more frequent among the patients with other cancers (6.0% vs. 1.7%, p=0.095; 12.0% vs. 1.0%, p<0.001; respectively). Six patients had > or =2 other cancers. Ovarian, breast, and colon were the three most common other cancers. After a median follow-up of 57.1 months, 18.3% of patients had died: 30.0% of patients with other cancers and 16.3% of those without other cancers. The corresponding EC deaths were 14.0% and 11.2%. The 5-year overall survival was significantly lower in patients who had other cancers: 79.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 68.3 to 90.3) vs. 86.0% (95% CI, 81.7 to 90.3) than in those without (p=0.023). However, the corresponding disease-specific survival was not significantly different: 85.1% (95% CI, 75.5 to 94.7) compared with 89.0% (95% CI, 85.1 to 92.9), respectively (p=0.514). CONCLUSION: Thai EC patients had a high incidence of other cancers. Overall survival of EC patients who had other cancers was worse than those without, while disease-specific survival was not significantly different.
Breast Neoplasms/mortality/pathology/therapy ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant/methods ; Colonic Neoplasms/mortality/pathology/therapy ; Disease-Free Survival ; Endometrial Neoplasms/mortality/*pathology/therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/mortality ; Neoplasms, Multiple Primary/mortality/*pathology/therapy ; Neoplasms, Second Primary/mortality/*pathology/therapy ; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant/methods ; Tertiary Care Centers/statistics & numerical data ; Thailand/epidemiology

BACKGROUNDIt is not clear if there is a difference in prognosis between male breast cancer (MBC) and female breast cancer (FBC) patients. The aim of this study was to compare the prognosis of MBC and FBC patients in China and the prognosis of MBC and their corresponding postmenopausal FBC patients.

METHODSThirty-five MBC patients who were treated at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between 1969 and 2004 were enrolled in the study. Seventy FBC patients who were matched with the MBC patients for TNM stage, year of diagnosis, and age at diagnosis were simultaneously enrolled in the study. A second group comprising 18 MBC patients and their corresponding 36 matched postmenopausal FBC patients were also enrolled. The whole group and the postmenopausal groups were compared for five- and ten-year survivals.

RESULTSAll the factors that could potentially affect prognosis were comparable among the groups except more FBC than MBC patients underwent endocrine therapy and a modified radical mastectomy. The 5- and 10-year survivals in the whole group were 81.6% and 60.3% for men and 90.7% and 73.5% for women (P = 0.02). The 5- and 10-year survival in the postmenopausal group was 82.5% and 100% for men and 66.0% and 85.9% for women (P = 0.159).

CONCLUSIONSChinese FBC patients had a better prognosis than Chinese MBC patients. However, MBC patients and their corresponding postmenopausal FBC patients had a similar prognosis.

Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms ; mortality ; pathology ; therapy ; Breast Neoplasms, Male ; mortality ; pathology ; therapy ; China ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; analysis ; Receptors, Estrogen ; analysis ; Receptors, Progesterone ; analysis ; Sex Characteristics ; Survival Rate

OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinical characteristics, survival and prognosis of breast cancer patients under 30 years of age.

METHODS129 breast cancer patients under 30 years treated from Jan 1980 to May 2000 were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical features, survival and prognostic factors were analyzed by SPSS 10.0 statistic software.

RESULTSBreast cancer patients under 30 years accounted for 2.6% of all breast cancers in our hospital. The overall 5- and 10-year survival rates were 61.5% and 46.7%, respectively. For patients with tumor < or = 3 cm or > 3 cm, the 10-year survival rates were 65.5% and 27.4% (P < 0.01). For those with number of positive axillary lymph nodes 0, 1-3, or > or = 4, the 10-year survival rates were 79.5%, 40.9% or 31.4% (P < 0.01). For patients who had been treated with or without tamoxifen, the 10-year survival rates were 63.7% and 45% (P < 0.01). For those complicated with pregnancy and lactation which was found in 24.8% of such patients, the 10-year survival rate was 44.3%. In the multivariate analysis, independent prognostic factors that might improve the overall survival were tumor size, axillary metastatic status and tamoxifen treatment.

CONCLUSIONBreast cancer patients aged 30 years and younger may have good prognosis if multimodality treatment is given. Tumor size, axillary metastatic status and tamoxifen treatment are independent prognostic factors. Prognosis of patients, either complicated with pregnancy and lactation or not, is quite similar if the clinical stage is the same and if being treated by the combined therapy.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Bone Neoplasms ; secondary ; Breast Neoplasms ; mortality ; pathology ; therapy ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; mortality ; secondary ; therapy ; Carcinoma, Medullary ; mortality ; secondary ; therapy ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lactation ; Lung Neoplasms ; secondary ; Mastectomy ; methods ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic ; pathology ; therapy ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Tamoxifen ; administration & dosage

OBJECTIVETo investigate the value of postmastectomy radiotherapy for early breast cancer.

METHODSFrom 1983 to 1991, 605 patients with T1-2N0-1M0 breast cancer were treated by radical mastectomy in our hospital. 149 patients underwent surgery alone(S group), and the remaining 456 patients received further adjuvant treatment. Of these patients, 135 received postoperative radiotherapy(S + R group), 113 adjuvant chemotherapy or tamoxifen(S + Y group), and 208 adjuvant chemotherapy or tamoxifen plus radiotherapy(S + Y + R group). Here, chemotherapy plus tomoxifen is designated as systematically therapy. The locoregional recurrence (LRR), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) rates were calculated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. The differences in locoregional recurrence and survival between these groups were compared by logrank test.

RESULTSThe 10-year actuarial LRR, OS and DFS rates for all patients were 13.4%, 81.6%, and 67.6%, respectively. The 10-year LRR rate was 10.3% for patients with negative axillary nodes, 9.4% for those with 1-3 positive nodes, and 25.9% for those with four or more positive nodes. The locoregional recurrence was significantly higher in patients with four or more positive nodes as compared to those with negative or 1-3 positive nodes (P < 0.05). For the S and S + R groups, the 10-year actuarial LRR rate was 18.7% in the S group and 7.5% in the S + R group (P = 0.017), the corresponding OS and DFS rates of these two groups were 82.1% and 81.1% (P = 0.618), and 65.2% and 71.6% (P = 0.457), respectively. For the S + Y and S + Y + R groups, the 10-year actuarial LRR rate was 21.1% in the S + Y group and 9.5% in the S + Y + R group (P = 0.001), There, the corresponding OS and DFS rates were 75.5% and 85.0% (P = 0.020), and 59.3% and 70.2% (P = 0.003), respectively. Only for patients with four or more positive nodes who had had systematic therapy, radiotherapy was beneficial; the 10-year actuarial LRR of patients who received systematic therapy only was 40.1% as compared with 15.1% of those who received systematic therapy plus radiotherapy; Their OS rates were 55.4% and 67.1% (P = 0.040) and their DFS rates were 30.5% and 57.3% (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONPost-mastectomy radiotherapy is able to significantly decrease the locoregional recurrence and improve the survival of patients with four or more positive axillary nodes. We suggest that postmastectomy radiotherapy be given as routine for these patients.

Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms ; mortality ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; surgery ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Neoplasm Staging ; Postoperative Care ; Survival Rate

This article provides an overview of metastases to jaws (MJ), mainly concerning the differences between American and Chinese patients, and exploring the relationship between the primary tumors' prevalence (PTP) and constituent ratio of MJ. Information concerning of 399 MJ cases in 215 papers, including one new case in our hospital, was subjected to statistic analysis. The main clinical features of MJ, such as constituent ratio of PTP and that of MJ, metastatic sites, treatments, and prognosis were summarized. Breast, lung, kidney, prostate and thyroid (in descending order) were the leading primary sites of MJ. Furthermore, the constituent ratio of MJ was found to be correlated with that of PTP in all subjects including American and Chinese subjects in our study. As to metastatic sites in the mandible, a specific "M" shaped pattern appeared regardless of the tumor type or constituent ratios of MJ were in all subjects. Almost all subjects received traditionally palliative treatments, and the prognosis was quite poor. The PTP had a significant impact on the constituent ratio of MJ. However, it was the properties of the microenvironment rather than characteristics or constituent ratios of tumor cells, that decided the metastatic sites in various tumor subjects.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Breast Neoplasms ; pathology ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Jaw Neoplasms ; mortality ; secondary ; therapy ; Kidney Neoplasms ; pathology ; Liver Neoplasms ; pathology ; Lung Neoplasms ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; physiopathology ; Palliative Care ; Prognosis ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; pathology ; Statistics, Nonparametric ; Survival Analysis ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; pathology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of combination chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin for advanced breast cancer (ABC).

METHODSFrom January 2001 to March 2006, 45 patients with ABC were treated with combination chemotherapy of paclitaxel and carboplatin. Patients received infusion of paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks or 75 mg/m2 on day 1, 8, 15 every 4 weeks. Carboplatin was administrated on day 2 with a dose of area under the time-concentration curve (AUC) being 5.

RESULTSThe median number of cycles was 3 (range, 2-6). The overall response rate was 62.2%. Median time to progression was 7.0 months (95% CI: 5.1-8.9). Median overall survival was 29.0 months (95% CI: 20.1-37.9). One year survival rate was 73.3%. Response rate for first line and second line treatment were 62.1% and 62.5% , respectively. No significant difference in response existed between visceral metastasis and soft tissue metastasis. The main side effects included nausea/vomiting, neurotoxicity, and hematologic toxicities. Grade III to IV adverse events included nausea/vomiting in 2 cases (4.4%), leukopenia in 17 cases (37.8%) , and alopecia in 6 cases (13.3%).

CONCLUSIONCombination of paclitaxel and carboplatin is active in treatment of ABC with an acceptable toxicity profile.

Alopecia ; chemically induced ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; mortality ; pathology ; Carboplatin ; administration & dosage ; Drug Administration Schedule ; Female ; Humans ; Leukopenia ; chemically induced ; Liver Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; secondary ; Lung Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; secondary ; Middle Aged ; Nausea ; chemically induced ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paclitaxel ; administration & dosage ; Postmenopause ; Premenopause ; Soft Tissue Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; secondary ; Survival Rate ; Vomiting ; chemically induced

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between response categories assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or pathology and survival outcomes, and to determine whether there are prognostic differences among molecular subtypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated 174 patients with biopsy-confirmed invasive breast cancer who had undergone MRI before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, but before surgery. Pathology findings were classified as a pathologic complete response (pCR) or a non-pCR, and MRI findings were designated as a radiologic CR (rCR) or a non-rCR. We evaluated overall and subtype-specific associations between clinicopathological factors including the assessment categories and recurrence, using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: There were 41 recurrences (9 locoregional and 32 distant recurrences). There were statistically significant differences in recurrence outcomes between patients who achieved a radiologic or a pCR and patients who did not achieve a radiologic or a pCR (recurrence hazard ratio, 11.02; p = 0.018 and recurrence hazard ratio, 3.93; p = 0.022, respectively). Kaplan-Meier curves for recurrence-free survival showed that triple-negative breast cancer was the only subtype that showed significantly better outcomes in patients who achieved a CR compared to patients who did not achieve a CR by both radiologic and pathologic assessments (p = 0.004 and 0.001, respectively). A multivariate analysis found that patients who achieved a rCR and a pCR did not display significantly different recurrence outcomes (recurrence hazard ratio, 2.02; p = 0.505 and recurrence hazard ratio, 1.12; p = 0.869, respectively). CONCLUSION: Outcomes of patients who achieved a rCR were similar to those of patients who achieved a pCR. To evaluate survival difference according to molecular subtypes, a larger study is needed.
Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy/mortality/*pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; *Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Receptor, ErbB-2/genetics/metabolism ; Receptors, Estrogen/genetics/metabolism ; Receptors, Progesterone/genetics/metabolism ; Remission Induction

We evaluated the efficacy and safety of weekly paclitaxel plus trastuzumab as firs-tline chemotherapy in women with HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer (MBC), and we investigated the prognostic factors including magnitude of HER2/neu amplification in this population. We analyzed 54 patients with HER2-overexpressing MBC that were treated with weekly paclitaxel plus trastuzumab as first-line chemotherapy from February 2004 to December 2006. At a median follow-up of 28 months, median time to progression (TTP) was 16.6 months (95% CI, 9.4 to 23.7 months) and median overall survival was 25.6 months (95% CI, 21.8 to 27.3 months). Therapy was generally well tolerated, although three patients (5.5%) experienced reversible, symptomatic heart failure. Of the 27 patients evaluable for the HER2 FISH, patients with a HER2/CEP17 ratio of < or =4.0 had significantly shorter TTP than those with a HER2/CEP17 ratio of >4.0 (10.8 vs. 23.2 months, P=0.034). A HER2/CEP17 ratio of >4.0 was identified as significant predictive factor of TTP by multivariate analysis (P=0.032). The combination of weekly paclitaxel plus trastuzumab as first-line chemotherapy is an effective regimen in patients with HER2-FISH-positive MBC. Furthermore, the magnitude of HER2 amplification is an independent predictive factor of TTP.
Adult ; Aged ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/*administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/*administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms/*drug therapy/mortality/pathology ; Disease Progression ; Drug Administration Schedule ; Female ; Gene Amplification ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Middle Aged ; Paclitaxel/*administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Receptor, erbB-2/*genetics/metabolism ; Survival Analysis