Anthracycline-Free Neoadjuvant Treatment in Patients with HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Real-Life Use of Pertuzumab, Trastuzumab and Taxanes Association with an Exploratory Analysis of PIK3CA Mutational Status.

HER2 is considered one of the most traditional prognostic and predictive biomarkers in breast cancer. Literature data confirmed that the addition of pertuzumab to a standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy backbone (either with or without anthracyclines), in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early breast cancer (EBC), leads to a higher pathological complete response (pCR) rate, which is known to correlate with a better prognosis. In this retrospective analysis, 47 consecutive patients with HER2-positive EBC received sequential anthracyclines and taxanes plus trastuzumab (ATH) or pertuzumab, trastuzumab and docetaxel (THP). Despite the limited sample size, this monocentric experience highlights the efficacy (in terms of pCR) and safety of THP in the neoadjuvant setting of HER2-positive EBC as an anthracycline-free approach. Given the role of PIK3CA as a prognostic and therapeutic target in breast cancer, tumors were also analyzed to assess the PIK3CA mutational status. Thirty-eight out of forty-seven patients were evaluated, and PIK3CA variants were identified in 21% of tumor samples: overall, one mutation was detected in exon 4 (2.6%), two in exon 9 (5.3%) and four in exon 20 (10.5%). Of note, one sample showed concurrent mutations in exons 9 (codon 545) and 20 (codon 1047). Among patients reaching pCR (n = 13), 38.5% were PIK3CA mutants; on the other hand, among those lacking pCR (n = 25), just 12% showed PIK3CA variants. Regarding THP-treated mutant patients (n = 5), 80% reached pCR (three hormone-receptor-negative, one hormone-receptor-positive). Interestingly, the only patient not achieving pCR had a tumor with two co-occurring PIK3CA mutations. In conclusion, this study provides new evidence about the efficacy and good safety profile of THP, compared to the ATH regimen, as an anthracycline-free neoadjuvant treatment of HER2-positive EBC. Further studies on larger/multicentric cohorts are planned for more in-depth analysis to confirm our molecular and clinical results.

Bone recurrence in early breast cancer patients: The paradox of aromatase inhibitors induced bone resorption.

BACKGROUND: Despite the increase in chances of cure for early breast cancer (EBC) patients, approximately 20-45% of them will experience a disease recurrence, particularly bone metastases in 60-80% of cases, which occur more frequently in luminal subtypes. Endocrine therapy (ET) has always been the milestone of adjuvant treatment for hormone receptor-positive EBC patients, leading to indubitable reduction of disease recurrence risk. However, adjuvant aromatase inhibitors (AIs) therapy may promote a progressive decrease in bone mineral density (BMD), which can lead to osteoporosis. The increased bone resorption associated with osteoporosis may provide fertile soil for cancer growth and accelerate the development of bone metastases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this single-institution cohort study, we performed a retrospective analysis of "luminal-like" EBC patients who experienced bone recurrence after a subsequent disease free interval. The aim of the study was to evaluate the median time to skeletal recurrence (TSkR). RESULTS: 143 patients experienced bone recurrence. Median TSkR was 54 months (95%CI: 45-65). Among patients who received adjuvant AIs median TSkR was 35 months (95%CI: 25-54), while among patients who did not was 61 months (95%CI: 50-80) (HR = 1.45 [95%CI: 0.97-2.17], p = 0.0644). After adjusting for TNM stage (AJCC 8th edition), adjuvant AIs treatment was significantly related to a shorter TSkR (HR = 1.60 [95%CI: 1.06-2.42], p = 0.0244). Adjuvant Tamoxifen, adjuvant AIs/Tamoxifen and no-treatment did not revealed to be associated to TSkR. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of EBC patients with bone recurrence, AIs treatment seems to be related to a shorter TSkR. AIs-induced bone resorption might represent the underlying mechanism.

Circulating MicroRNAs as Prognostic and Therapeutic Biomarkers in Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes.

Breast cancer (BC) is a common and heterogeneous disease, of which six molecular subtypes, characterized by different biological features and clinical outcomes, were described. The identification of additional biomarkers able to further connote and distinguish the different BC subtypes is essential to improve the diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic strategies in BC patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNA involved in several physiological and pathological processes, including cancer development and progression. In particular, circulating miRNAs, which can be found in an adequately stable structure in serum/plasma of cancer patients, are emerging as very promising non-invasive biomarkers. Several studies have analyzed the potential role of circulating miRNAs as prognostic and therapeutic markers in BC. In the present review we describe circulating miRNAs, identified as putative biomarker in BC, with special reference to different BC molecular subtypes.

Family History of Cancer as Potential Prognostic Factor in Stage III Colorectal Cancer: a Retrospective Monoinstitutional Study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The prognostic role of family history of cancer (FHC) in resected colorectal cancer (CRC) is controversial. The aim of the current study was to evaluate its impact in a monoinstitutional series of stage III CRC patients. METHODS: This single institution retrospective analysis is aimed at evaluating whether FHC affects overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in stage III CRC patients. Moreover, the role of both colorectal FHC (FHCRC, in patients with at least one relative with CRC) and FHC "burden" have been investigated; patients were classified according to FHC in FHC negative, FHC-low (one "familial cluster" among parents/children/grandparents, brothers/sisters, uncles/cousins), and FHC-high (at least two clusters of those above mentioned). RESULTS: From October 2000 to March 2019, 112 consecutive stage III CRC patients have been evaluated. Median age was 67 years (range 24-89); male/female ratio was 64/48. Fifty-three (47.3%) patients were FHC-negative while 59 (52.7%) patients were FHC-positive, 18 (16.1%) of whom were FHCRC-positive. Thirty-three (29.5%) patients were FHC-low, and 10 (8.9%) were FHC-high. At a median follow-up of 41.9 months, no statistically significant differences in DFS were found. FHC-positive patients had a significantly longer OS than FHC-negative (HR = 0.32 [95% CI 0.12-0.84], p = 0.0210), and a significant trend towards improved OS according to the FHC burden was found (p = 0.0255). No statistically significant differences were found in DFS and OS according to FHCRC. CONCLUSION: In this retrospective analysis, FHC-positive stage III CRC patients had a significantly longer OS compared to FHC-negative. Moreover, this survival benefit seems to increase according to the FHC burden. Further prospective studies, with longer follow-up and larger sample size, are necessary to confirm FHC as prognostic factor in this setting.

The possible different roles of denosumab in prevention and cure breast cancer bone metastases: A 'hypothesis-generator' study from clinical practice.

The most frequent site of recurrence in breast cancer (BC) is the bone, particularly in patients with 'luminal-like' disease. Denosumab has been shown to prevent aromatase inhibitors (AIs) induced bone resorption in postmenopausal early BC patients and reduce skeletal-related events (SREs) in bone metastatic breast cancer (BMBC). A 'real life' analysis of 90 BMBC patients treated with denosumab was performed. Eighty-six patients (95.6%) had 'luminal-like' disease, 72 (80%) had bone metastases at the time of first recurrence of disease. Among 50 patients with metachronous 'luminal-like' disease, 40 (80%) had first recurrence to the bone. Among these patients median time to skeletal recurrence (TSkR) was shorter for patients who were previously exposed to AIs compared to those who were not (53.0 vs. 102.0 months, respectively; P=0.0300) and longer for patients previously treated with tamoxifen compared to those who were not (102.0 vs. 59.0 months, respectively; P=0.0466). Both of them were not confirmed at multivariate analysis. In the overall population, 17 first SREs were observed (16 radiation therapy) and median time to first SRE was not reached. A statistically significant difference in the incidence of SREs was detected only between patients with exclusively osteolytic bone metastases vs. those without (P=0.013). The presence of exclusively-osteolytic bone metastases was the only factor significantly associated with a shorter time to first SRE (P=0.011). The only G3 toxicity reported was hypocalcemia in one patient. No osteonecrosis of the jaw events (ONJ) occurred. This study demonstrated that a pro-active attitude enables the treatment of the majority of patients with denosumab without significant class-related toxicities. The majority of SREs were from radiation therapy, so pain still remains the clinical hallmark of bone metastases, particularly for osteolytic ones. The suggestion that estrogen deprivation with AIs can favor a 'bone-related' risk conditions for developing bone metastases must be considered with caution and surely needs further validations.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer: a dose-dense schedule in real life and putative role of PIK3CA mutations.

BACKGROUND: Dose-dense chemotherapy is one of the treatments of choice for neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer (BC). Activating mutations in PIK3CA gene predict worse response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for HER2-positive patients, while their role is less clearly defined for HER2-negative tumors. METHODS: We conducted a phase I/II study of neoadjuvant, sequential, dose-dense anthracycline/taxane chemotherapy, plus trastuzumab in HER2-positive patients and investigated the correlation of pre-treatment PIK3CA mutation status with pathologic complete response (pCR) and long-term outcome in a real-life setting. RESULTS: we established a dose-dense docetaxel recommended dose of 60 mg/m2 and 65 mg/m2, with or without trastuzumab, respectively, according to HER2-status, following dose-dense epirubicin-cyclophosphamide (90/600 mg/m2), every 2 weeks. The overall pCR rate was 21.4%; median disease-free survival (DFS) was 52 months and median overall survival (OS) was not yet reached. PIK3CA mutation status was not significantly associated with the pCR rate: 18% for both mutated and wild-type patients. The pCR rate was: 25% in the mutated and 24% in the wild-type (p 0.560) cohort of the HER2-positive subgroup; 33% both in the mutant and wild-type cohort of the triple-negative subgroup; no pCR neither in the mutant nor in the wild-type cohort of the HR-positive/HER2-negative subgroup. Among the HER2-positive population, a trend toward worse DFS was observed in case of mutation, as opposed to the triple negative population. CONCLUSIONS: This study proposes an effective and safe neoadjuvant dose-dense anthracycline/taxane schedule and suggests that PIK3CA mutation analysis can be usefully performed in real-life clinical practice.

Family history of cancer as surrogate predictor for immunotherapy with anti-PD1/PD-L1 agents: preliminary report of the FAMI-L1 study.

AIM: Tumors related to hereditary susceptibility seem to have an immunosensitive phenotype. MATERIALS & METHODS: We conducted a multicenter retrospective study, to investigate if family history of cancer, multiple neoplasms and early onset of cancer could be related to clinical outcomes of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy. Activity and efficacy data of 211 advanced cancer patients (kidney, non-small-cell lung cancer, melanoma, urothelium, colorectal and HeN), treated at seven Italian centers with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents, were analyzed. RESULTS: In this preliminary report at multivariate analyses, positive family history of cancer showed a statistically significant relationship with a better objective response rate (p = 0.0024), disease control rate (p = 0.0161), median time to treatment failure (p = 0.0203) and median overall survival (p = 0.0221). Diagnosis of multiple neoplasms significantly correlates only to a better disease control rate, while interestingly non-early onset of cancer and sex (in favor of female patients) showed significant correlation with a better median overall survival (p = 0.0268 and p = 0.0272, respectively). CONCLUSION: This pilot study seems to individuate easily available patient's features as possible predictive surrogates of clinical benefit for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatments. These preliminary results need to be confirmed with a greater sample size, in prospective trials with immunotherapy.

Prognostic significance of clinicopathological factors in early breast cancer: 20 years of follow-up in a single-center analysis.

BACKGROUND: To quantify the effect of traditional prognostic factors [nodal status, estrogen-receptor (ER), progesterone-receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)] on long-term outcome of patients with early breast cancer (EBC), treated in clinical practice over a period of about twenty years. RESULTS: 1198 consecutive patients were identified. Median DFS (disease-free survival): ER+/PR±/HER2-, 165 months (mo) if node-negative (N0) and 114mo if node-positive (N+) (p < 0.001); triple-negative (TN), 109mo if N0 and 65mo if N+ (p 0.144); ER+/PR±/HER2+ in patients not-treated with adjuvant trastuzumab (T-), not reached if N0 and 114mo if N+ (p 0.297); ER+/PR±/HER2+ in patients treated with trastuzumab (T+), 95mo if N0 and 85mo if N+ (p 0.615); ER-/PR-/HER2+ T-, not reached if N0 and 26mo if N+ (p 0.279); ER-/PR-/HER2+ T+, not reached if N0 and 66mo if N+ (p 0.014). Median OS (overall survival): ER+/ PR±/HER2-, 166mo if N0 and 144mo if N+ (p 0.028); TN, 158mo if N0 and 96mo if N+ (p 0.384); ER+/PR±/HER2+ T-, not reached if N0 and 157mo if N+ (p 0.475), ER+/PR±/HER2+ T+, not reached if N0 and 106mo if N+ (p 0.436); ER-/PR-/HER2+ T-, not reached if N0 and 34mo if N+ (p 0.273); ER-/PR-/HER2+ T+, not reached neither if N0 nor if N+ (p 0.094). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated according to tumor characteristics, based on information retrospectively retrieved from patients' medical records. CONCLUSIONS: Pathological tumor characteristics and nodal status still represent useful tools in treatment selection and follow-up decision making of EBC patients in clinical practice.

Bone targeted therapy for preventing skeletal-related events in metastatic breast cancer.

Cancer cells can alter physiological mechanisms within bone resulting in high bone turnover, and consequently in skeletal-related events (SREs), causing severe morbidity in affected patients. The goals of bone targeted therapy, as bisphosphonates and denosumab, are the reduction of incidence and the delay in occurrence of the SREs, to improve quality of life and pain control. The toxicity profile is similar between bisphosphonates and denosumab, even if pyrexia, bone pain, arthralgia, renal failure and hypercalcemia are more common with bisphosphonates, while hypocalcemia and toothache are more frequently reported with denosumab. Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) occurred infrequently without statistically significant difference. The present review aims to provide an assessment on bone targeted therapies for preventing the occurrence of SREs in bone metastatic breast cancer patients, critically analyzing the evidence available so far on their effectiveness, in light of the different mechanisms of action. Thus, we try to provide tools for the most fitting treatment of bone metastatic breast cancer patients. We also provide an overview on the usefulness of bone turnover markers in clinical practice and new molecules currently under study for the treatment of bone metastatic disease.

Prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genomic rearrangements in a cohort of consecutive Italian breast and/or ovarian cancer families.

Germline point mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes account for about 30% of the inherited breast and ovarian cancers. Germline genomic rearrangements have been found in both BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, but the extent to which these alterations might contribute to increasing the actual mutation detection rate is still debated. Here we screened a cohort of 112 consecutive Italian families at moderate-to-high risk for breast and/or ovarian cancer for BRCA1 and BRCA2 point mutations and genomic rearrangements. Of the 83 point mutation negative probands, two (2.4%) showed BRCA1 rearrangements, accounting for 10.5% of the BRCA1 mutations. BRCA1 del18-19 has been previously described in another Italian family, while the molecular characterization of the BRCA1 del23-24 is given here for the first time. Conversely, we failed to identify any BRCA2 rearrangements even in the hereditary breast cancer families, where we detected an higher prevalence of BRCA2 compared to BRCA1 point mutations. Our results support the idea that search for BRCA1 rearrangements should be included in the genetic screening of even moderate risk breast/ovarian cancer families. In contrast, they suggest BRCA2 rearrangements might be very rare out of the high risk families including a male breast cancer.

Novel BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutations and assessment of mutation spectrum and prevalence in Italian breast and/or ovarian cancer families.

Familial aggregations of breast/ovarian cancer cases frequently depend on BRCA1/2 pathogenic mutations. Here we counselled 120 Italian breast/ovarian cancer families and selected 73 probands for BRCA1/2 mutation screening. Through this analysis we defined the prevalence of BRCA1/2 pathogenic mutations occurring in Italian breast/ovarian cancer families, enlarged the spectrum of Italian BRCA1/2 mutations by 15% and report on the identification of 13 novel variants, including two deleterious truncating mutations and two potentially pathogenic missense mutations, on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Finally in hereditary breast cancer families with three or more female breast cancer cases we observed a low mutation prevalence and a significant association with BRCA2 mutations.

Improving the accuracy of BRCA1/2 mutation prediction: validation of the novel country-customized IC software.

Inherited mutations of the BRCA1/2 genes confer a significantly increased risk for breast and/or ovarian cancer development. Several models were elaborated to help genetic counsellors in selecting individuals with high probability of being mutation carriers. The IC software, a country-customized version of the Brcapro model, was recently shown to be particularly accurate in the prediction of carrier probability status in the Italian population. Here, we used our independent series of 70 breast/ovarian cancer families to analyze the performances of the IC software and compare it to widely used models, such as Brcapro and the Myriad mutation prevalence tables. Analysis of the areas under the receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves indicated that overall the models performed well. However, the IC software and Myriad tables were more efficient in predicting mutated cases, showing a higher sensitivity (94 and 88%, respectively) and negative predictive value (NPV, 94 and 92%, respectively) compared to Brcapro (sensitivity 71 and NPV 83%). IC software also appeared particularly accurate in the identification of families belonging the low mutation risk group (<10%). Finally, most Brcapro failures occurred in the hereditary breast cancer (HBC) family subset, and in 75% of the cases, the IC software corrected them. Our data suggest that the country-customized implementation operated on the Brcapro software generated a more accurate tool for the prediction of BRCA1/2 gene mutation. Whether the IC or other country-customized models might improve BRCA1/2 mutation prediction also in non-Italian families needs to be further explored.