Impact of the first lockdown for coronavirus 19 on breast cancer management in France: A multicentre survey.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the impact of lockdown for SARS-CoV-2 on breast cancer management via an online survey in a French multicentre setting. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a multicentre retrospective study, over the strict lockdown period from March 16th to May 11th, 2020 in metropolitan France. 20 centres were solicited, of which 12 responded to the survey. RESULTS: 50% of the centres increased their surgical activity, 33% decreased it and 17% did not change it during containment. Some centres had to cancel (17%) or postpone (33%) patient-requested interventions due to fear of SARS-CoV-2. Four and 6 centres (33% and 50%) respectively cancelled and postponed interventions for medical reasons. In the usual period, 83% of the centres perform their conservative surgeries on an outpatient basis, otherwise the length of hospital stay was 24 to 48 h. All the centres except one performed conservative surgery on an outpatient basis during the lockdown period, for which. 8% performed mastectomies on an outpatient basis during the usual period. During lockdown, 50% of the centres reduced their hospitalization duration (25% outpatient /25% early discharge on Day 1). CONCLUSION: This study explored possibilities for management during the first pandemic lockdown. The COVID-19 pandemic required a total reorganization of the healthcare system, including the care pathways for cancer patients.

Evolution of characteristics of women with endometrial cancer during a 40 years study period.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of our work was to investigate changes in presentation and endometrial cancer (EC) types frequencies thorough a 40 years study period. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The patient group consisted of consecutive women undergoing surgery for endometrial cancer in our institution between 1975, and 2014. Clinical data included age, BMI (Kg/m2), histological data from surgical staging and survival data. RESULTS: 842 patients with the final diagnosis of endometrial cancer were enrolled. BMI was overweight rising through study decades. Age of diagnosis was also in constant augmentation since 1975. Type II EC proportion was 9.2% in the seventies and 27.9% after 2000. Overall survival was stable over time. Women with BMI < 18 kg/m2 had lower overall survival when compared to women with other BMI categories (p < 0.0001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: An analysis on a larger population of underweight women with EC is needed to identify specific factors. A trend to develop more type II EC can partly explain these results. We identified a clear trend of augmentation of type II EC, known to have a poor prognosis while necessitating specific surgical management. Histologic analysis standardisation, surgical strategy and amelioration of adjuvant treatments permitted to maintain a stable overall survival for the whole population despite this augmentation.

SK3 Gene Polymorphism Is Associated with Taxane Neurotoxicity and Cell Calcium Homeostasis.

Purpose: Taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect induced by anticancer agents, and no drug capable of preventing its occurrence or ameliorating its long-term course has been identified. The physiology of taxane neuropathy is not clear, and diverse mechanisms have been suggested, with ion channels regulating Ca2+ homeostasis appearing good candidates. The calcium-activated potassium channel SK3 is encoded by the KCNN3 gene, which is characterized by a length polymorphism due to variable number of CAG repeats.Experimental Design: To study the influence of the polymorphism of CAG motif repeat of KCNN3 on the development of taxane-induced neuropathy, we evaluated 176 patients treated with taxanes for breast cancer. In parallel, we measured Ca2+ entry using Fura2-AM dye in HEK cells expressing short versus long CAG alleles of KCNN3 Results: In the current study, we report that in the presence of docetaxel, Ca2+ entry was significantly increased in cells expressing short versus long CAG alleles of SK3 and that a SK3-lipid blocker inhibits this effect. We found that patients carrying a short KCNN3 allele exhibited significantly increased incidence of taxane neuropathy compared with those carrying longer alleles.Conclusions: The clinical implication of these findings is that KCNN3 polymorphism may increase patient susceptibility to taxane neurotoxicity and that the use of SK3 blockers during taxanes' administration may represent an interesting approach for the prevention of this neurotoxicity. Clin Cancer Res; 24(21); 5313-20. ©2018 AACR.

Patterns of MUC1 tissue expression defined by an anti-MUC1 cytoplasmic tail monoclonal antibody in breast cancer.

Our aim was to determine the pattern of expression of MUC1 mucin cytoplasmic tail (MUC1 CT) in breast carcinoma. A total of 98 invasive breast adenocarcinoma tumor samples were assayed by immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis. The pattern of reaction was classified as membrane, cytoplasmic, or mixed. Subcellular fractions were prepared after SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The antibodies employed were anti-MUC1 CT (CT2 monoclonal antibody, MAb) and C595 MAb against the extracellular MUC1 core protein. With the CT2 MAb, IHC showed a high percentage of positive staining in 93% of specimens, with membrane staining the most common pattern observed. C595 MAb was reactive in 73% of specimens. Similar percentages of membrane and cytoplasmic staining were found, mainly in a mixed pattern. Western blotting showed different bands. With the CT2 MAb, the membrane fraction showed the most intense reaction; a strong band of reaction was detected at approximately <30 kD. With the C595 MAb, in most cases a double band at 200 kD was found. In breast epithelium, the pattern of MUC1 CT expression may constitute an indicator of MUC1 production because it does not depend on glycosylation. The pattern and extension of MUC1 CT positivity do not vary according to the histopathological subtype of the tumor.