Tumor biology, clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of screen detected T1 invasive non-palpable breast cancer in asymptomatic Chinese women (2001-2014).

BACKGROUND: Mammography screening usually detects low-risk breast cancer in the western world. However, little is known about the ultrasound and mammography screen-detected T1 invasive non-palpable breast cancer (NPBC) in asymptomatic Chinese women. RESULTS: With the increase of tumor size (T1a, b, c), lymph node positivity (8.7%, 18.3%, 26.0%, p = 0.018), pN (p = 0.028) and TNM stage (p = 0.035) increased accordingly. Tumor size (T1a, b, c) was correlated with high Ki-67 index (defined as ≥ 14%, 37.9%, 45.8%, 56.2%, p = 0.017), chemotherapy (20.4%, 35.2%, 57.3%, p < 0.001) and targeted therapy (2.9%, 9.9%, 15.1%, p = 0.008). T1a disease had higher chance of being luminal A and accompanied with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), while T1c tumor being triple-negative and without DCIS. The 5-year disease free survival (DFS) of T1a, b, c NPBC were 99.0%, 96.9% and 92.9%, whereas the 5-year overall survival (OS) were 100.0%, 100.0% and 97.9% respectively. There was no significant difference in 5-year DFS or OS among the T1 NPBC subgroups or subtypes/immunophenotypes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From 2001 to 2014, 4,574 screening positive women received biopsies in Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) Hospital, and 729 NPBC including 437 T1 unilateral invasive NPBC were diagnosed. With a median follow-up time of 32 months (6-163 months), the clinicopathological characteristics, treatment choice, 5-year DFS and OS were compared between T1a, T1b and T1c NPBC. The DFS and OS prognostic factors were identified. CONCLUSION: Screen-detected T1 invasive NPBC could be regarded as low-risk cancer in Chinese women. TNM stage and LN metastasis instead of molecular subtype was identified as the DFS prognostic factors while radiotherapy as the OS predictor.

Clinicopathological characteristics and long-term prognosis of screening detected non-palpable breast cancer by ultrasound in hospital-based Chinese population (2001-2014).

PURPOSE: The mainstay modality of breast cancer screening in China is the hospital-based opportunistic screening among asymptomatic self-referred women. There is little data about the ultrasound (US) detected non-palpable breast cancer (NPBC) in Chinese population. METHODS: We analyzed 699 consecutive NPBC from 1.8-2.3 million asymptomatic women from 2001 to 2014, including 572 US-detected NPBC from 3,786 US-positive women and 127 mammography (MG) detected NPBC from 788 MG-positive women. The clinicopathological features, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between the US- and MG-detected NPBC. Prognostic factors of NPBC were identified. RESULTS: Compared to MG, US could detect more invasive NPBC (83.6% vs 54.3%, p<0.001), lymph node positive NPBC (19.1% vs 10.2%, p=0.018), lower grade (24.8% vs 16.5%, p<0.001), multifocal (19.2% vs 6.3%, p<0.001), PR positive (71.4% vs 66.9%, p=0.041), Her2 negative (74.3% vs 54.3%, p<0.001), Ki67 high (defined as >14%, 46.3% vs 37.0%, p=0.031) cancers and more NPBC who received chemotherapy (40.7% vs 21.3%, p<0.001). There was no significant difference in 10-year DFS and OS between US-detected vs MG-detected NPBC, DCIS and invasive NPBC. For all NPBC and the US-detected NPBC, the common DFS-predictors included pT, pN, p53 and bilateral cancers. CONCLUSION: US could detect more invasive, node-positive, multifocal NPBC in hospital-based asymptomatic Chinese female, who could achieve comparable 10-year DFS and OS as MG-detected NPBC. US would not delay early detection of NPBC with improved cost-effectiveness, thus could serve as the feasible initial imaging modality in hospital-based opportunistic screening among Chinese women.

Correlation between Ultrasound-guided Diffuse Optical Tomography and Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1Α of Breast Cancer.

Objective To investigate the correlation between ultrasound-guided diffuse optical tomography (US-DOT) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1Α (HIF-1Α) of breast cancer. Methods Totally 69 patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer underwent preoperative conventional breast ultrasonography examinations and US-DOT at Peking Union Medical College Hospital From October 2007 to February 2010 were enrolled in this study.After surgery,immunohistochemical staining of HIF-1Α and CD34 were performed,and the differences of total hemoglobin concentration (THC) and microvessel density (MVD) between HIF-1Α positive and negative groups were analyzed. Results HIF-1Α was positive in 12 cases (17.4%) and negative in 57 cases (82.6%). The average THC and MVD of HIF-1Α-positive cases were (274.763±77.661) Μmol/L and (33.8±10.8)/0.2 mm(2) respectively. The average THC and MVD of HIF-1Α-negative cases were (228.059±65.760)Μmol/L and (28.4±7.4)/0.2 mm(2). MVD(t=2.049,P=0.04) and THC(t=2.167,P=0.034) of HIF-1Α-positive group were significantly higher than those of HIF-1Α-negative group. Conclusions HIF-1Α can promote tumor angiogenesis and thus increase the blood supply and THC. As an indicator of tumor blood supply,THC can indirectly reflect the angiogenic activity of breast cancer.

[Automated breast volume scanning in the diagnosis of breast intraductal papilloma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the value of automated breast volume scanning (ABVS) in the diagnosis of breast intraductal papilloma (IDP). METHODS: Totally 239 lesions in 213 women who were scheduled for open biopsy were investigated in this study. The patients underwent both ABVS and conventional ultrasound (US). According to the imaging diagnostic standards of IDP, the diagnostic accuracy for ABVS was calculated, and then compared with US, using histopathological examination as the gold standard. RESULTS: Among the 239 breast lesions studied, 85 were pathologically proved to be malignancies and 154 benign lesions, among which there were 26 cases of IDP. ABVS found 41 cases of IDP (17.2%), with the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy being 88.5%, 91.5%, 56.1%, 98.5%, and 91.2%, respectively. In contrast, US found 32 cases of IDP (13.4%), with the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy being 73.1%, 93.9%, 59.4%, 96.6%, and 91.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: ABVS coronal images can better display the structures of dilated lactiferous ducts and the intraluminal echoes, increase the diagnostic accuracy of IDP, and thus provide more information for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of IDP.

Interobserver agreement for sonograms of breast lesions obtained by an automated breast volume scanner.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the interobserver agreement of radiologists in the description and final assessment of breast sonograms obtained using an automated breast volume scanner (ABVS) using a unique descriptor of three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) and the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) US lexicon. METHODS: From October to December 2010, 208 patients were subjected to an ABVS examination in the supine position, and data were automatically sent to the ABVS workstation. Two radiologists independently evaluated 234 breast masses (148 benign and 86 malignant masses) using a unique descriptor from the 3D US and the BI-RADS US lexicon. The reviewers were blinded to the patient's mammographic images, medical history, and pathologic findings. The interobserver agreement was measured using kappa statistics. RESULTS: Substantial agreement was obtained for lesion shape, orientation, margin, echo pattern, posterior acoustic features, calcification and final assessment (κ=0.79, 0.74, 0.76, 0.69, 0.68, 0.71 and 0.70, respectively). Fair agreement was obtained for retraction phenomenon and lesion boundary (κ=0.54 and 0.42, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The interobserver agreement for breast sonograms obtained by ABVS is good, especially for lesion shape and margin; however, the interobserver agreement for the retraction phenomenon, which is a unique descriptor of coronal-plane 3D US, needs to be improved.

US-guided diffused optical tomography: a promising functional imaging technique in breast lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility and clinical efficacy of ultrasound (US)-guided diffused optical tomography (DOT) in differentiating malignant breast lesions from benign lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From October 2007 to August 2008, 198 women with 214 lesions scheduled for open biopsy were included in this study. Conventional US was used to locate the breast lesion, and DOT to measure the total haemoglobin concentration (THC) for each breast lesion. Sensitivity, specificity and overall accuracy were determined with surgical pathology as the gold standard. RESULTS: There were 96 benign lesions and 118 malignant lesions. The total haemoglobin concentration (THC) of all 214 lesions was calculated from DOT. The average THC in benign lesions was 125.5 +/- 83.4 micromol/L, and in malignant lesions 222.2 +/- 87.2 micromol/L. The THC of malignant lesions was significantly higher than that of benign lesions (p < 0.05). When a THC of 140 micromol/L was used as the cutoff value for differentiating breast cancer from benign lesions, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of DOT were 83.9%, 66.7%, 76.2%, 75.6% and 77.1%, respectively. Our study demonstrated that THC was significantly higher in malignant lesions than in benign lesions. CONCLUSION: US-guided diffused optical tomography, a noninvasive functional imaging technique, has potential utility in differentiating breast cancer from benign lesions.