Impact of adjuvant treatment modalities on survival outcomes in curatively resected pancreatic and periampullary adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: We examined the impact of adjuvant modalities on resected pancreatic and periampullary adenocarcinoma (PAC). METHODS: A total of 563 patients who were curatively resected for PAC were retrospectively analyzed between 2003 and 2013. RESULTS: Of 563 patients, 472 received adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) alone, chemoradiotherapy (CRT) alone, and chemoradiotherapy plus chemotherapy (CRT-CT) were analyzed. Of the 472 patients, 231 were given CRT-CT, 26 were given CRT, and 215 were given CT. The median recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were 12 and 19 months, respectively. When CT and CRT-CT groups were compared, there was no significant difference with respect to both RFS and OS, and also there was no difference in RFS and OS among CRT-CT, CT and CRT groups. To further investigate the impact of radiation on subgroups, patients were stratified according to lymph node status and resection margins. In node-positive patients, both RFS and OS were significantly longer in CRT-CT than CT. In contrast, there was no significant difference between groups when patients with node-negative disease or patients with or without positive surgical margins were considered. CONCLUSIONS: Addition of radiation to CT has a survival benefit in patients with node-positive disease following pancreatic resection.

Adjuvant systemic chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab in patients with resected liver metastases from colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate the impact of adjuvant systemic therapy with modern chemotherapy combinations on survival outcomes in patients with resected liver-confined metastases from colorectal carcinomas, and whether addition of bevacizumab (BEV) provides further benefit. METHODS: A total of 229 consecutive patients who underwent resection for liver-confined colorectal liver metastases were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Of 229 patients, 204 who received chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidine-based (n = 27), irinotecan-based (n = 84) and oxaliplatin-based (n = 93) combinations were analyzed. Among these, 87 patients received BEV while 117 did not (NoBEV). With a median follow-up of 27 months after metastasectomy, the median recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were 17 and 53 months, respectively. OS rates at 3 and 5 years were 71% and 40%, respectively. No significant differences were found in the median RFS (p = 0.744) and OS (p = 0.440) among different chemotherapy regimens. The median RFS (p = 0.375) and OS (p = 0.251) were similar in BEV and NoBEV arms. In multivariate analysis, having 4 liver metastases was the only negative independent factor on both RFS and OS, while positive surgical margin was another negative independent factor for RFS. CONCLUSION: Chemotherapy type and addition of BEV have no impact on both RFS and OS in the adjuvant setting following complete resection of colorectal liver metastases.

Co-existence of gastrointestinal stromal tumors with other primary neoplasms.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common primary mesenchymal neoplasms of the tubular gastrointestinal tract (GI). Here, we present a series of 32 patients diagnosed with a primary neoplasm in addition to GIST, from six different institutions in Turkey. METHODOLOGY: In total, 200 patients with GIST were evaluated; 32 patients with both GISTs and other primary malignancies were identified. RESULTS: This study included 20 men and 12 women median age 66.5 years (range 43-78). GIST was incidentally found intra-operatively in 12 of the cases. All patients underwent surgery. Detection of the GIST was synchronous in 19 cases, metachronous in 7 cases and preceded the GIST diagnosis in 6 cases. The median time before follow-up evaluation ranged from 4 to 80 months. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, no cases of GISTs co-existing with leiomyosarcoma of the spermatic cord and larynx tumors have been reported previously. The prevalence of malignancies in this subpopulation of GIST patients is significantly higher than the prevalence of malignancies in the healthy Turkish population. The high occurrence rate of additional primary malignancies in GIST patients has focused the attention of clinical oncologists on this problem, and may imply a common genetic mechanism for their etiology.

Clinicopathologic features of the nine patients with primary diffuse large B cell lymphoma of the breast.

BACKGROUND: Non-Hodgkin lymphomas of the breast are uncommon cancers that occur as either primary extranodal diseases or secondary localizations of a systemic disease. The term "primary breast lymphoma" (PBL) is used to define malignant lymphomas primarily occurring in the breast in the absence of previously detected lymphoma localizations. In this report, we analyzed nine patients with primary diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of breast. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with newly diagnosed PBLs treated between 1997 and 2009 in five institutions were retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: The median age of the patients with PBL was 49 years (range 30-82 years), and four patients had left-sided and five had right-sided disease. All of the nine patients were classified as DLBCL. Five patients with DLBCL received chemotherapy followed by involved-field or elective-field radiotherapy and four received chemotherapy alone. Complete remission (CR) following primary treatment for all patients with PBL except for two cases was obtained. In two patients, recurrence occurred. At the median follow-up of 24.2 months, the 5-year OS rate was 76.2%. Univariate analysis indicated that age, ECOG PS, clinical stage, international prognostic index score, lactate dehydrogenase levels and the presence of B symptoms were not important prognostic factors in our study. CONCLUSIONS: Our series contained a small sample size, but it is interesting because it included only DLBCL cases. However, definitive conclusions about treatment and follow-up options of patients cannot be made in such a small series of patients. There are very few reports of patients with PBL treated with R-CHOP rather than CHOP alone. The followup is probably still too short and sample size very few to know how R-CHOP compares with CHOP-treated patients in other series, but this is definitely worth looking at in more detail when reasonable median follow-up has been achieved and sample size are sufficient.

Cisplatin plus docetaxel combination in the first-line treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

AIMS: To evaluate activity and toxicity of cisplatin plus docetaxel combination in the first-line treatment of chemotherapy-naive patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between October 2004 and July 2008, 186 patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer treated with first-line cisplatin plus docetaxel were retrospectively evaluated in 7 centers. The chemotherapy schedule consisted of cisplatin, 75 mg/m(2) iv infusion, and docetaxel, 75 mg/m(2) iv infusion on day 1, every 3 weeks. RESULTS: Median age was 56 years (range, 28-75). Eighteen patients (9.7%) were females and 168 (90.3%) were males, with a median ECOG performance status of 1 (range, 0-2). A total of 833 cycles of chemotherapy was administered (median, 4 cycles; range, 1-6). Two patients (1.1%) achieved clinical complete response, 77 patients (41.4%) partial response, and 66 patients (35.5%) stable disease. Median time to disease progression was 6 months (95% CI, 5.54-6.46). Median overall survival was 14.6 months (95% CI, 11.47-17.73). One- and 2-year overall survival was 55.2% and 19.7%, respectively. The most common grade 3-4 hematological toxicities were neutropenia (n = 32, 17.2%) and anemia (n = 4, 2.2%). CONCLUSIONS: The cisplatin plus docetaxel combination was effective and safe in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The importance of multifocal/multicentric tumor on the disease-free survival of breast cancer patients: single center experience.

OBJECTIVES: Multifocal/multicentric breast cancers have been comprehensively studied and their outcomes have been compared with unifocal tumors. We evaluated the impact of multifocality and multicentricity on the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival of breast cancer patients and tried to analyze the correlation between multifocality/multicentricity (M/M) and other prognostic factors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between 1994 and 2009, we analyzed retrospectively 697 breast cancer patients. Multicentric and multifocal breast cancer were defined as the presence of 2 or more invasive tumor foci within the different quadrants of the same breast or within a same quadrant of the breast, respectively. M/M and other prognostic factors were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Multifocal/multicentric tumors were seen in 107 (15.4%) of the 697 breast cancer patients. pT and pN stage were related with the presence of multifocal/multicentric tumors. As tumor size increased and the number of axillary lymph nodes metastasis increased, the incidence of M/M increased significantly (P=0.003 vs. P=0.02, respectively). Overall, the median DFS time of patients with multifocal/multicentric tumors was significantly worse than that of the unifocal tumors (55 vs. 137 mo, P<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of M/M was the most important prognostic factor for DFS (P=0.001, hazard ratio (HR): 0.33; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.18-0.58), as were pN stage and extracapsular extension of the tumor (P=0.01, HR: 1.74; 95% CI, 1.13-2.69) (P=0.03, HR: 1.9; 95% CI, 1.04-3.47, respectively). M/M were not also statistically significant prognostic factors in breast cancer for overall survival (P=0.06). CONCLUSIONS: M/M imparts an unfavorable prognosis on the DFS of breast cancer patients in comparison to unifocal tumors and the presence of multifocal/multicentric tumors were associated with advanced pT and pN stages.

Clinicopathological features in bilateral breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: The frequency of bilateral breast cancer is 1.4-11.0% among all breast cancers. It can present as synchronous (SC) or metachronous (MC). Data regarding clinical course of bilateral breast cancer are scarce. In this study, we therefore evaluated demographic, pathological and clinical characteristics, treatments and responses in bilateral breast cancer cases; making distinctions between metachronous-synchronous and comparing with historic one-sided data for the same parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred fifty bilateral breast cancer cases from ten different centers between 2000 and 2011 were retrospectively scanned. Age of the cases, family history, menopausal status, pathological features, pathological stages, neoadjuvant, surgery, adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy/radiotherapy were examined in the context of the first and second occurrence and discussed with reference to the literature. RESULTS: Metachronous and synchronous groups showed similar age, menopausal status, tumor type, HER2/neu expression; the family history tumor grade, tumor stage, ER-negativity rate, local and distant metastases rates, surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy application rates were identified as significantly different. Palliative chemotherapy response rate was greater in the metachronous group but median PFS rates did not differ between the groups. CONCLUSION: Although bilateral breast cancer is not frequent, MC breast cancer is different from SC breast cancer by having more advanced grade, stage, less ER expression, more frequent rates of local relapse and distant metastasis and better response to chemotherapy in case of relapse/metastasis.