Impact of hormone receptor status and tumor subtypes of breast cancer in young BRCA carriers.

BACKGROUND: Hormone receptor expression is a known positive prognostic and predictive factor in breast cancer; however, limited evidence exists on its prognostic impact on prognosis of young patients harboring a pathogenic variant (PV) in the BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 genes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter, retrospective cohort study included young patients (aged ≤40 years) diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and harboring germline PVs in BRCA genes. We investigated the impact of hormone receptor status on clinical behavior and outcomes of breast cancer. Outcomes of interest [disease-free survival (DFS), breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS), and overall survival (OS)] were first investigated according to hormone receptor expression (positive versus negative), and then according to breast cancer subtype [luminal A-like versus luminal B-like versus triple-negative versus human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer]. RESULTS: From 78 centers worldwide, 4709 BRCA carriers were included, of whom 2143 (45.5%) had hormone receptor-positive and 2566 (54.5%) hormone receptor-negative breast cancer. Median follow-up was 7.9 years. The rate of distant recurrences was higher in patients with hormone receptor-positive disease (13.1% versus 9.6%, P < 0.001), while the rate of second primary breast cancer was lower (9.1% versus 14.7%, P < 0.001) compared to patients with hormone receptor-negative disease. The 8-year DFS was 65.8% and 63.4% in patients with hormone receptor-positive and negative disease, respectively. The hazard ratio of hormone receptor-positive versus negative disease changed over time for DFS, BCSS, and OS (P < 0.05 for interaction of hormone receptor status and survival time). Patients with luminal A-like breast cancer had the worst long-term prognosis in terms of DFS compared to all the other subgroups (8-year DFS: 60.8% in luminal A-like versus 63.5% in triple-negative versus 65.5% in HER2-positive and 69.7% in luminal B-like subtype). CONCLUSIONS: In young BRCA carriers, differences in recurrence pattern and second primary breast cancer among hormone receptor-positive versus negative disease warrant consideration in counseling patients on treatment, follow-up, and risk-reducing surgery.

Feasibility of risk assessment for breast cancer molecular subtypes.

PURPOSE: Few breast cancer risk assessment models account for the risk profiles of different tumor subtypes. This study evaluated whether a subtype-specific approach improves discrimination. METHODS: Among 3389 women who had a screening mammogram and were later diagnosed with invasive breast cancer we performed multinomial logistic regression with tumor subtype as the outcome and known breast cancer risk factors as predictors. Tumor subtypes were defined by expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) based on immunohistochemistry. Discrimination was assessed with the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC). Absolute risk of each subtype was estimated by proportioning Gail absolute risk estimates by the predicted probabilities for each subtype. We then compared risk factor distributions for women in the highest deciles of risk for each subtype. RESULTS: There were 3,073 ER/PR+ HER2 - , 340 ER/PR +HER2 + , 126 ER/PR-ER2+, and 300 triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC). Discrimination differed by subtype; ER/PR-HER2+ (AUC: 0.64, 95% CI 0.59, 0.69) and TNBC (AUC: 0.64, 95% CI 0.61, 0.68) had better discrimination than ER/PR+HER2+ (AUC: 0.61, 95% CI 0.58, 0.64). Compared to other subtypes, patients at high absolute risk of TNBC were younger, mostly Black, had no family history of breast cancer, and higher BMI. Those at high absolute risk of HER2+ cancers were younger and had lower BMI. CONCLUSION: Our study provides proof of concept that stratifying risk prediction for breast cancer subtypes may enable identification of patients with unique profiles conferring increased risk for tumor subtypes.

Machine learning prediction of pathological complete response and overall survival of breast cancer patients in an underserved inner-city population.

BACKGROUND: Generalizability of predictive models for pathological complete response (pCR) and overall survival (OS) in breast cancer patients requires diverse datasets. This study employed four machine learning models to predict pCR and OS up to 7.5 years using data from a diverse and underserved inner-city population. METHODS: Demographics, staging, tumor subtypes, income, insurance status, and data from radiology reports were obtained from 475 breast cancer patients on neoadjuvant chemotherapy in an inner-city health system (01/01/2012 to 12/31/2021). Logistic regression, Neural Network, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosted Regression models were used to predict outcomes (pCR and OS) with fivefold cross validation. RESULTS: pCR was not associated with age, race, ethnicity, tumor staging, Nottingham grade, income, and insurance status (p > 0.05). ER-/HER2+ showed the highest pCR rate, followed by triple negative, ER+/HER2+, and ER+/HER2- (all p < 0.05), tumor size (p < 0.003) and background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) (p < 0.01). Machine learning models ranked ER+/HER2-, ER-/HER2+, tumor size, and BPE as top predictors of pCR (AUC = 0.74-0.76). OS was associated with race, pCR status, tumor subtype, and insurance status (p < 0.05), but not ethnicity and incomes (p > 0.05). Machine learning models ranked tumor stage, pCR, nodal stage, and triple-negative subtype as top predictors of OS (AUC = 0.83-0.85). When grouping race and ethnicity by tumor subtypes, neither OS nor pCR were different due to race and ethnicity for each tumor subtype (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Tumor subtypes and imaging characteristics were top predictors of pCR in our inner-city population. Insurance status, race, tumor subtypes and pCR were associated with OS. Machine learning models accurately predicted pCR and OS.

Establishment and Validation of Novel Prognostic Subtypes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Bile Acid Metabolism Gene Signatures Using Bulk and Single-Cell RNA-Seq Data.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly detrimental cancer type and has limited therapeutic options, posing significant threats to human health. The development of HCC has been associated with a disorder in bile acid (BA) metabolism. In this study, we employed an integrative approach, combining various datasets and omics analyses, to comprehensively characterize the tumor microenvironment in HCC based on genes related to BA metabolism. Our analysis resulted in the classification of HCC samples into four subtypes (C1, C2a, C2b, and C3). Notably, subtype C2a, characterized by the highest bile acid metabolism score (BAMS), exhibited the highest survival probability. This subtype also demonstrated increased immune cell infiltration, lower cell cycle scores, reduced AFP levels, and a lower risk of metastasis compared to subtypes C1 and C3. Subtype C1 displayed poorer survival probability and elevated cell cycle scores. Importantly, the identified subtypes based on BAMS showed potential relevance to the gene expression of drug targets in currently approved drugs and those under clinical research. Genes encoding VEGFR (FLT4 and KDR) and MET were elevated in C2, while genes such as TGFBR1, TGFB1, ADORA3, SRC, BRAF, RET, FLT3, KIT, PDGFRA, and PDGFRB were elevated in C1. Additionally, FGFR2 and FGFR3, along with immune target genes including PDCD1 and CTLA4, were higher in C3. This suggests that subtypes C1, C2, and C3 might represent distinct potential candidates for TGFB1 inhibitors, VEGFR inhibitors, and immune checkpoint blockade treatments, respectively. Significantly, both bulk and single-cell transcriptome analyses unveiled a negative correlation between BA metabolism and cell cycle-related pathways. In vitro experiments further confirmed that the treatment of HCC cell lines with BA receptor agonist ursodeoxycholic acid led to the downregulation of the expression of cell cycle-related genes. Our findings suggest a plausible involvement of BA metabolism in liver carcinogenesis, potentially mediated through the regulation of tumor cell cycles and the immune microenvironment. This preliminary understanding lays the groundwork for future investigations to validate and elucidate the specific mechanisms underlying this potential association. Furthermore, this study provides a novel foundation for future precise molecular typing and the design of systemic clinical trials for HCC therapy.

Cáncer de mama Triple Negativo / Triple Negative Breast Cancer

El cáncer de mama Triple Negativo ha sido estudiado a lo largo de los años principalmente por ser uno de los de peor pronóstico y, además, por carecer de terapia blanco. El debut de esta patología se puede dar de diversas formas, y es en función de esto que el especialista optará entre distintas medidas: ya sea instaurará tratamiento adyuvante o neoadyuvante o enfrentará directamente la enfermedad metastásica. Si bien muchas veces las terapias a utilizar no se encuentran bien establecidas, las drogas quimioterápicas no difieren de las de los otros subtipos. Pero, al ser tumores que se asocian con mayor frecuencia a mutaciones en el brca, se han investigado tratamientos que apuntan más hacia el defecto de reparación del adn mediante la recombinación homóloga, como son los platinos y los inhibidores del parp. Por otro lado, no se debe dejar de mencionar las terapias dirigidas hacia los distintos subtipos tumorales como, por ejemplo, los antagonistas androgénicos que aún se encuentran en estudio. Sabemos que el cáncer de mama Triple Negativo es una patología extremadamente difícil de tratar, pero todavía quedan en el tintero investigaciones para esclarecer y enfocar las terapias blanco según cada subtipo dentro de estos tumores

Over the years, Triple Negative breast cancers have been studied, mainly because of its poor prognosis but also because it lacks a target therapy. Its debut may occur in different ways, therefore specialists can choose between different measures for treatment. The choices lay between adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapies or to directly face metastatic disease. Although these therapies are not fully established, chemotherapeutic drugs do not differ from other breast cancer subtypes. The association between these tumors and brca mutations is so high, target treatments have been focusing in dna defect repair, through homologous recombination, such as platinum-based chemotherapy and parp inhibitors. Other target therapies should be taken into account, such as androgenic antagonists, which are still being studied. Considering the nature of such an heterogeneous disease, which is extremely difficult to treat, we should acknowledge research in this subject is yet to be clarified to be able to provide new target therapies for each subtype within the triple negative tumors

¿Tiene valor pedir más de un perfil inmunohistoquímico en tumores multicéntricos o multifocales de mama? / Has it any value to request more than one immunohistochemical profile in multicentric or multifocal breast tumors?

Introducción La estimación de la prevalencia de tumores mamarios multicéntricos y multifocales es muy variable según los distintos estudios analizados. Esto se debe, en gran parte, a la falta de consistencia al momento de definir ambas formas de presentación. Por este motivo, muchos autores hacen referencia a este tipo de tumor como carcinoma mamario múltiple. El tnm, uicc-ajcc (7ma edición) define a esta forma de presentación como múltiples lesiones de carcinoma mamario presentes en la misma mama de manera sincrónica. Según el Colegio Americano de Patólogos (cap), la caracterización biológica de la lesión de mayor tamaño tumoral es suficiente, salvo que se presenten discordancias entre los tipos histológicos o grados tumorales. A pesar de que la estrategia de evaluar una única lesión en este aspecto tiene claras ventajas en costos y viabilidad, el cáncer de mama es considerado en sí mismo una enfermedad heterogénea, y, al seguir las recomendaciones anteriormente expresadas, se estaría asumiendo que estos tipos de tumores múltiples tienen un comportamiento biológico homogéneo. Por tal motivo, en el presente estudio se analiza el comportamiento biológico (re, rp, her2 y Ki-67) en cada foco tumoral presente, para poder establecer si, al seguir las recomendaciones vigentes actualmente, no estaríamos subtratando a un grupo de nuestras pacientes. Objetivos Evaluar la concordancia en los perfiles inmunohistoquímicos de cada tumor presente de manera sincrónica en la mama. Establecer la asociación entre los tamaños, los tipos histológicos y el grado tumoral. Material y método Se realizó un estudio observacional, retrospectivo en pacientes con diagnóstico y confirmación por estudio histopatológico de pieza quirúrgica de carcinoma mamario multifocal o multicéntrico. De un total de 722 pacientes, se obtuvieron datos de 45 historias clínicas, en un período comprendido, entre marzo de 2015 y septiembre de 2016 (18 meses). Las pacientes analizadas fueron diagnosticadas y tratadas en la Unidad de Mastología de la Clínica Breast y el Hospital Italiano de la Ciudad de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Los resultados histopatológicos e Inmunohistoquímicos (ihq) se obtuvieron de los patólogos pertenecientes a nuestro centro mastológico. El perfil ihq se realizó en tejido tumoral obtenido mediante biopsia con aguja gruesa o pieza quirúrgica. Se determinó: Receptores Hormonales para Estrógeno (re) y Progesterona (rp), her2 y Ki-67. Resultados • Se observó una incidencia de 6,23% de tumores multicéntricos, multifocales. • En cuanto al tipo histológico, la correlación entre biopsia con aguja gruesa y análisis de pieza quirúrgica fue del 100% (n:45 pacientes). • Grado histológico tumoral en los distintos focos: 84% (n=38) de concordancia y 16% (n=7) de discordancia. • Variabilidad de subtipos tumorales en cada foco: el 67% (n=30) no presentó discordancias. • Perfil inmunohistoquímico (ihq): el porcentaje de pacientes con concordancia en el perfil inmunohistoquímico y el subtipo tumoral fue superior al grupo de pacientes que presentaron discordancias. En el grupo de pacientes con discordancias, un 20% sobreexpresó el marcador her2. Conclusiones Teniendo en cuenta la heterogeneidad tanto intratumoral como entre los distintos focos que se presenta en estos tumores múltiples, es importante obtener la mayor información posible sobre la morfología y el perfil inmunohistoquímico.

Estimates of the prevalence of multicentric and multifocal breast tumors is highly variable depending on the different studies analyzed, and this is due largely to the lack of consistency when defining both forms of presentation. For this reason, many authors refer to this type of tumor as multiple breast carcinoma. The tnm (7th edition) defines this presentation as multiple lesions of breast carcinoma present in the same breast synchronously. According to the College of American Pathologists (cap), biological characterization of the lesion of the largest tumor is sufficient, unless discrepancies between the histological tumor types or degrees are presented. Although the strategy of evaluating a single lesion in this regard, has clear advantages in cost and viability, breast cancer is considered itself an heterogeneous disease, and following the recommendations previously expressed, it would be assuming that these type of multiple tumors have a homogeneous biological behavior. Therefore, in this study the biological behavior (er, pr, her2 and Ki-67) is analyzed in each tumor focus, to determine whether to follow the recommendations currently in force, we would not be sub-treatment a group of our patients.