Outcome of 561 non-metastatic triple negative breast cancer patients: multi-center experience from Turkey.

PURPOSE: Triple-negative breast cancers account for 15% of breast carcinomas and, when present as early-stage disease, they are associated with higher rates of recurrence and early distant metastasis risk when compared to hormone receptor positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER-2) positive breast cancers. In this study we aimed to explore the basic clinicopathological characteristics, prognostic factors and recurrence patterns of non-metastatic triple negative breast cancer patients. METHODS: In this study 561 non-metastatic triple-negative breast cancer female patients admitted to 8 different cancer centers in Turkey between 2000 and 2010 were retrospectively evaluated through their medical records, to identify the basic clinico-pathological characteristics, prognostic factors and recurrence patterns. RESULTS: The ratio of triple-negative breast cancer was 12%. The median age of patients was 48 years, of whom 311 (55.4%) were premenopausal. The majority had early-stage breast cancer at the time of diagnosis (16.8% stage I, 48.1% stage II, 35.1 % stage III) and the most commonly identified variant was invasive ductal carcinoma (84.1%). Grade II and III tumors were 27.1 and 48.5%, respectively. Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered to 90.5% of women and adjuvant radiotherapy to 41.2%. Median patient follow up was 28 months (range 3-290). During the follow up period 134 (23.8%) patients developed metastatic disease. In most of these cases, metastatic sites were bone, soft tissue, and lung. Factors affecting disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were age (both p<0.001), lymph node involvement (both p<0.001), lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (p<0.001 and p=0.004, respectively), tumor stage (both p<0.001), adjuvant administration of anthracycline-based chemotherapy (both <0.001) and type of surgery (not significant for DFS but p=0.05 for OS). Three-year DFS and OS were 72.0 and 93.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Age, lymph node involvement, LVI, stage, and adjuvant chemotherapy were determined as prognostic factors for DFS and OS. The most common recurrence sites were bone, soft tissue and the lung. Further prospective randomised trials are needed to confirm the prognostic and predictive factors identified in this study.

Effects of comorbidities and functional living activities on survival in geriatric breast cancer patients.

AIM OF THE STUDY: We evaluated the possible effects of comorbid diseases and functional capacity on the survival of elderly female patients with breast cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 159 breast cancer patients aged 65 years or older. Functional status of the patients was evaluated using Katz's index of activities of daily living (ADL) and Lawton and Brody's Instrumental ADL (IADL) scale. RESULTS: ADL-based evaluation revealed 121 patients (76.1%) were independent, 34 (21.4%) semi-dependent and 4 (2.5%) dependent whereas IADL-based evaluation showed 69 patients (43.4%) were independent, 67 patients (42.1%) semi-dependent and 23 patients (14.5%) dependent. Among the patients, 69 (43.4%) had one comorbid disease, 62 (39.0%) had two and 26 (16.4%) had three or more. Of the entire cohort, 60.4% received adjuvant chemotherapy. Based on ADL index, overall survival (OS) was significantly better in semi-dependent and independent patients than in dependent patients (p = 0.001). In the upfront non-metastatic patient subgroup, disease-free survival (DFS) was favourable in the independent patients according to ADL index (p = 0.001). Having more than one comorbid disease had an unfavourable effect on OS. In the multiple regression analysis of non-metastatic patients, stage, triple-negative histology and ADL index remained significant in terms of OS (p = 0.008, HR: 3.17, CI: 1.35-7.44; p = 0.027, HR: 2.78, CI: 1.172-6.91; and p = 0.006, HR: 0.29, CI: 0.12-0.70, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In elderly patients with breast cancer, evaluation of daily living activities and comorbid diseases are as important as staging and subclassification of breast cancer in the determination of prognosis and survival.

Childhood, adolescents, and young adults (≤25 y) colorectal cancer: study of Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics and treatment outcomes of young patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Between May 2003 and June 2010, 76 patients were found eligible for this retrospective study. Age, sex, presenting symptoms, patients with acute presentation, family history, presence of polyps, histologic features, localization and stage of the tumor, treatment outcomes, time and site of recurrence, sites of metastasis, and survival outcomes were recorded from the patient files. RESULTS: Seventy-six patients (55.3% male) with a median age of 23 years were evaluated. Patients were evaluated in 2 groups as follows: child-adolescent (0 to 19 y, n=20) and young adult (20 to 25 y, n=56). Sex and symptoms (abdominal pain and rectal bleeding) were significantly differed between the groups and acute presentation was close to statistical significance. Overall survival significantly increased in patients undergoing curative surgery (P<0.001). Other parameters affecting the survival was stage of disease (P=0.004). Response to palliative chemotherapy in metastatic patients (P=0.042) and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy had a statistically significant survival advantage (P=0.028). CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis of CRC should not be excluded solely on the basis of age. CRC features in young-adult patients are more similar to adults compared with that of child-adolescent patients according to the symptoms and presentation. In patients with CRC in this age group, curative surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy, and palliative chemotherapy provide survival advantage.

Biological Subtypes and Distant Relapse Pattern in Breast Cancer Patients After Curative Surgery (Study of Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology).

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to investigate the association between the molecular subtypes and patterns of relapse in breast cancer patients who had undergone curative surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 1,350 breast cancer patients with relapses after curative surgery between 1998 and 2012 from referral centers in Turkey. Patients were divided into 4 biological subtypes according to immunohistochemistry and grade: triple negative, HER2 overexpressing, luminal A and luminal B. RESULTS: The percentages of patients with luminal A, luminal B, HER2-overexpressing, and triple-negative breast cancer were 32.9% (n = 444), 34.9% (n = 471), 12.0% (n = 162), and 20.2% (n = 273), respectively. The distribution of metastases differed among the subgroups: bone (66.2% and 53.9% in luminal A and B vs. 38.9% in HER2-overexpressing and 45.1% in triple negative, p < 0.001), liver (40.1% in HER2-overexpressing vs. 24.5% in luminal A, 33.5% in luminal B, and 27.5% in triple negative, p < 0.001), lung (41.4% in triple negative and 35.2% in HER2-overexpressing vs. 30.2% and 30.6% in luminal A and B, p = 0.008) and brain (25.3% in HER2-overexpressing and 23.1% in triple negative vs. 10.1% and 15.1% in luminal A and B, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Organ-specific metastasis may depend on the molecular subtype of breast cancer. Tailored strategies against distant metastasis concerning the molecular subtypes in breast cancer should be considered.

Prognostic Factors in Operated Stage IIIC, Pathological N3a Breast Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the prognostic factors in patients operated for stage IIIC breast carcinoma who had > 10 positive axillary lymph nodes (pN3a). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The medical records of 302 operated N3a breast cancer patients without distant metastasis followed up in 2 medical oncology clinics in Ankara between January 1998 and June 2013 were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS: The median age was 50 (21-83) years. The median follow-up time was 43 (5-191) months. The patients were divided into 4 subgroups according to hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. There were 151 (50.0%) patients in the HR+/HER2- group, 80 (26.5%) patients in the HR+/HER2+ group, 42 (13.9%) patients in the HR-/HER2+ group, and 29 (9.6%) patients in the triple negative (TN) group. At the time of analysis, 155 (51.3%) patients had recurrent disease and 117 (38.7%) patients had died. The median disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) times were 46.0 and 78.0 months, respectively. Both the DFS and OS in the HR+/HER2- group were longer than in the other groups (log-rank p = 0.034 and p = 0.016, respectively). Menopausal status, progesterone receptor (PgR) status, and lymph node ratio (LNR; defined as the number of positive lymph nodes compared to the total number of removed lymph nodes) were found to be independent prognostic factors (p = 0.019, p = 0.001, and p = 0.012, respectively). CONCLUSION: Menopausal status, PgR status, and LNR were independent prognostic factors in operated N3a breast cancer patients, who are underrepresented in breast cancer trials.

Metaplastic breast carcinoma: case series and review of the literature.

Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MpBC) is a rare disease entity, accounting for less than 1% of all breast carcinomas. Furthermore, it is a heterogenous disease with different subgroups, including malignant epithelial (carcinoma) and stromal (sarcoma) features. Here we evaluated, retrospectively, 14 female MpBC patients admitted to Ankara Oncology Training and Research Hospital between 2005 and 2011. Median age was 45.5 (range:16.0-76.0) and tumor size 57.5 mm (range: 20.0-80.0 mm). Histopathological subtypes were as follows: 5 carcinosarcoma, 5 squamous and 4 adenosquamous carcinoma. All but one with upfront lung metastasis, had their primary breast tumor operated. Axillary lymph nodes were involved in 64.3%. The most common sites of metastasis were lungs and brain. Chemotherapy including antracycline, taxane and even platinium was planned for adjuvant, neoadjuvant and palliative purposes in 9, 3 and 1 patient, respectively. Median cycles of chemotherapy was 6 (range:4-8). Median follow-up of the patients was 52 months (95%CI 10.4-93.6 month). Median 3 year progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in this patients cohort were 33% and 56%, respectively. In conclusion, MpBC is a rare and orphan disease without standardized treatment approaches and the prognosis is poor so that larger studies to investigate different treatment schedules are urgently needed.

Breast cancer subtypes and outcomes of central nervous system metastases.

Central nervous system (CNS) metastases are detected in up to one third of patients with advanced breast cancer, but their incidence and outcomes by breast cancer subtypes are not precisely documented. Herein, we retrospectively analyzed clinicopathologic data of 259 breast cancer patients with CNS metastases to evaluate the association between breast cancer subtypes and CNS metastasis. The patient groups were classified according to their hormone receptor status and HER-2 expression. Median follow-up time among the patients was 42 months and median survival after CNS metastasis detection was 7.8 months. In HER-2 overexpressing group, median time period between the diagnosis of breast cancer and the detection of CNS metastasis (15.9 months) was significantly shorter compared to the other groups (p = 0.01). The triple negative group had the shortest median survival time after CNS metastasis (6.6 months), although statistically not significant (p = 0.3). In multivariate Cox regression analyses, having solitary CNS metastasis (HR 0.4, 95% CI; 0.2-0.7, p = 0.004), and receiving chemotherapy after CNS metastasis (HR 0.4, 95% CI; 0.287-0.772, p = 0.003) were independent prognostic factors for increasing survival after CNS metastasis. In conclusion, new and effective treatment strategies are required for breast carcinoma patients with brain metastasis considering the positive effect of the treatment on survival.

Optimal timing of adjuvant treatment in patients with early breast cancer.

It is well established that adjuvant treatment reduces mortality after early breast cancer. However, the optimal timing of adjuvant treatment is not well described. To determine the optimal timing of adjuvant treatment, 402 breast cancer patients who received adjuvant treatment at Ankara Oncology Research and Training Hospital between January 1995 and August 2002 were evaluated retrospectively. Three hundred and fifty-seven (88.8%) patients received adjuvant chemotherapy, 204 (50.7%) of these patients received only adjuvant chemotherapy and 153 (38%) patients received tamoxifen following chemotherapy. Remaining 45 (11.2%) patients received only adjuvant tamoxifen. The median time to start adjuvant treatment after surgery was day 21 (range, days 4 to days 258), and the median follow-up was 50 months (range, 6-105 months). The patients were divided into 5 groups according to starting time of chemotherapy (shorter than 14 days, between days 15-29, between days 30-44, between days 45.-59 and more than 59 days). Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were not shown significantly different between for 5 groups (P>0.05). Secondly, patients were divided into two groups as starting adjuvant treatment equal to or shorter than 44 days and longer than 44 days (n=344, 85.6% and vs. n=58, 14.4%, respectively). OS was significantly better in patients who started to receive adjuvant treatment within 44 days after surgery compared to patients who received adjuvant treatment after 44 days (92 vs. 83.3%, P=0.03) for 5 years, but DFS was not significantly different between two groups (83.4 vs. 82.2%, P>0.05). According to our study, adjuvant treatment of breast cancer should be initiated earlier after surgery.