Current Status of Breast Reconstruction in Southern China: A 15 Year, Single Institutional Experience of 20,551 Breast Cancer Patients.

The study of this study is to assess the current status and trend of the application of breast reconstruction in China.A retrospective review of all patients who had received surgical treatment for breast cancer in the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between January 1999 and June 2014 was performed. The clinicopathological and epidemiological parameters and the follow-up information of each patient were collected.A total of 20,551 patients with 20,974 surgeries were identified. Of those, the rates of patients received mastectomy, breast conserving therapy, and breast reconstruction were 81.2% (17,040 cases), 15.3% (3216 cases), and 3.4% (718 cases), respectively. Skin-sparing mastectomy with autologous breast reconstruction was algate the dominant option for breast reconstruction although a rapid growth in the application of prosthetic reconstructions was observed in recent years. The rates of complications that required reoperation in patients reconstructed with latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap, pedicled transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap, free flaps, and prosthesis were 1.2%, 8.5%, 11.4%, and 10.5%, respectively, while the revision rates were 0.7%, 6.1 %, 5.3%, and 2.3%, respectively. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that types of surgery did not affect the disease-free survival of breast cancer patients.Skin-sparing mastectomy with breast reconstruction is oncologically safe while achieving satisfactory aesthetic outcomes. Autologous reconstruction remains the most commonly used technique while there is a rapid increase of prosthetic reconstruction in recent years. The low demand for breast aesthetics among Chinese women, defects of healthcare system, and the limited availability of recourses impeded the development of breast reconstruction techniques in China.

A prospective comparison of molecular assay and touch imprint cytology for intraoperative evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Accurate intraoperative diagnosis of sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastases enables the selection of patients for axillary lymph node dissections during the same operation, reducing the need for a second operation. The present study aimed to prospectively compare the GeneSearch(TM) Breast Lymph Node (BLN) Assay with touch imprint cytology (TIC) for intraoperative evaluation of SLNs.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>SLNs were sectioned in 1.5 - 3.0 mm pieces. TIC was performed on all pieces and the BLN Assay and postoperative histology evaluations were performed on different alternating node pieces. Overall performance of the BLN Assay was compared with that of TIC relative to the postoperative histology results.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 90 patients enrolled in the study. Complete intraoperative data for both the BLN Assay and TIC were collected in 86 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of the BLN Assay were 82%, 97%, and 92%, respectively on a per patient basis compared with those of TIC which were 67%, 100%, and 90%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Performance of the BLN Assay was superior to that of TIC and the additional application of TIC did not help improve the total sensitivity and accuracy of the intraoperative assessment. The existence of ectopic breast tissue might be a possible cause of false positive for the BLN assay. In addition, the BLN Assay complements histopathology assessment and can minimize sampling error without increasing pathologists' workload.</p>

Evaluation of intraoperative molecular assay in sentinel lymph node biopsy from breast cancer patients / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>to evaluate the application of GeneSearch(TM) breast lymph node assay in intraoperative detection of metastases in sentinel lymph node (SLN) from breast cancer patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>a total of 225 SLN from 88 patients was prospectively studied. Each SLN was cut into 2 mm slabs which were examined by intraoperative imprint cytology (IIC) first, followed by GeneSearch assay and post-operative serial sectioning. GeneSearch used real-time fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR technology to detect the expression of CK19 and mammaglobin in SLN. The results of GeneSearch assay were correlated with those of IIC and post-operative serial sectioning.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>amongst the 88 cases studied, 225 SLNs were found, and obvious metastatic carcinoma cells were identified in 27 SLNs and micrometastasis in 9 SLNs. One hundred and eight-nine SLNs were considered as "negative" (with "isolated tumor cells" present in 5 SLNs). The turn-around time of intraoperative GeneSearch assay ranged from 35 to 45 minutes (mean = 40 minutes). The concordance rate between GeneSearch assay and post-operative serial sectioning was 95.6% (215/225), with a sensitivity of 86.1% (31/36), compared with 94.7% (213/225) and 72.2% (26/36) respectively for IIC. The size of metastatic foci correlated with the Ct value of CK19 and mammaglobin (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>GeneSearch assay for intraoperative detection of metastase in SLN has a satisfactory performance and demonstrates a relatively higher sensitivity than IIC. The potential clinical application still requires further evaluation of larger number of cases.</p>