Relationships between pathological factors and long-term outcomes in patients enrolled in two prospective randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy of oral tegafur-uracil with CMF (N·SAS-BC 01 trial and CUBC trial).

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacies of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) and tegafur-uracil (UFT) as adjuvant therapy in patients with resected stage I-IIIA breast cancer by immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based subtype and to determine the relationships between clinicopathological factors and long-term outcomes. METHODS: A pooled analysis of the randomized controlled N·SAS-BC 01 and CUBC studies was conducted. Expression of hormone receptors (HRs; estrogen and progesterone receptors), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and Ki67were assessed by IHC. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and nuclear/histological grades were determined by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and hazard ratios were determined by Cox model adjusted for baseline tumor size and nodal status. RESULTS: A total of 689 patients (342 CMF and 347 UFT) were included in the analyses with a median follow-up of 11.1 years. There was no significant difference in RFS or OS between the two cohorts (RFS: 0.96 [95% confidence interval: 0.71-1.30], log-rank test p = 0.80; OS: 0.93 [0.64-1.35], p = 0.70). There was no difference in RFS or OS between the two cohorts for HR+/HER2- and HR+/HER2+ subtypes. RFS was significantly longer in patients treated with UFT compared with CMF in patients with HR-/HER2+ subtype (0.30 [0.10-0.88], p = 0.03). A high TILs level was associated with a better OS compared with low TILs level (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: This long-term follow-up study showed that RFS and OS were similar in patients with luminal-type breast cancer treated with CMF and UFT.

Long-term survival analysis of addition of carboplatin to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-negative breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Addition of carboplatin (CBDCA) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has improved pathological complete response (pCR) rates in previous studies. We present long-term survival outcomes (disease-free survival [DFS], pre-planned secondary endpoint; overall survival [OS], post hoc exploratory endpoint) of our randomized study of the addition of CBDCA to NAC for HER2-negative breast cancer. METHODS: Patients with stage II/III, HER2-negative breast cancer (N = 179) were randomly assigned to receive CP-CEF (four 3-week cycles of CBDCA [area under the curve, 5 mg/mL/min, day 1] and weekly paclitaxel [wPTX, 80 mg/m2, day 1, 8, 15] followed by four 3-week cycles of cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and 5-fluorouracil [CEF, 500/100/500 mg/m2]) or P-CEF (four cycles of wPTX followed by four cycles of CEF) as NAC. DFS and OS were analyzed at each population of pCR status and assigned treatment arm. RESULTS: Of 179 patients, 154 were available for long-term follow-up. At a median follow-up of 6.6 years (range, 0.7-8.0 years), patients who achieved pCR [n = 42, 23.5% (CP-CEF: n = 28, P-CEF: n = 16)] had longer DFS and OS than non-pCR patients [DFS; HR 0.15 (0.04-0.61), P = 0.008, OS; log-rank P = 0.003]. Addition of carboplatin to NAC significantly improved DFS and OS in the subset of patients with TNBC [DFS: HR, 0.22 (0.06-0.82), P = 0.015; OS: HR, 0.12 (0.01-0.96), P = 0.046], but not in the subset of patients with hormone receptor-positive disease or among all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Addition of carboplatin to neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved DFS and OS in patients with TNBC but not in those with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

Prolonged Hypocalcemia Following a Single Dose of Denosumab for Diffuse Bone Metastasis of Gastric Cancer after Total Gastrectomy.

Hypocalcemia is a significant adverse effect of denosumab. We herein report a case of prolonged hypocalcemia in a patient with multiple risk factors for hypocalcemia, including gastrectomy, increased bone turnover, and a poor performance status. Hypocalcemia developed after denosumab treatment for diffuse bone metastasis of gastric cancer, despite oral supplementation with vitamin D and calcium. To avoid serious prolonged hypocalcemia, a thorough assessment of the bone calcium metabolism is required before initiating denosumab treatment.