Corrigendum: Decreased Survival of Invasive Ductal Breast Cancer Patients With Two Macrometastatic Lymph Nodes Among Few Resected Ones: Should Current Sentinel-Lymph-Node Guidelines Be Revised?

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2021.669890.].

Decreased Survival of Invasive Ductal Breast Cancer Patients With Two Macrometastatic Lymph Nodes Among Few Resected Ones: Should Current Sentinel-Lymph-Node Guidelines Be Revised?

PURPOSE: Sentinel-lymph-node (SLN) biopsy (SLB) is an efficient and safe axillary surgical approach with decreased morbidity than total axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in initial patients (T1-T2). Current guidelines strongly suggest avoiding completion of ALND in patients with one or two positive SLNs that will be submitted to whole-breast radiation therapy, but must be done when three SLNs are affected. METHODS: We performed a SEER-based study with breast invasive ductal carcinoma patients treated between 2010 and 2015. Optimal cutoffs of positive LNs predictive of survival were obtained with ROC curves and survival as a continuous variable. Bias was reduced through propensity score matching. Cox regression was employed to estimate prognosis. Nomograms were constructed to analyze the predictive value of clinicopathological factors for axillary burden. RESULTS: Of 43,239 initial patients that had one to three analyzed LNs, only 425 had two positive LNs and matched analysis demonstrated no survival difference versus pN2 patients [HR: 0.960 (0.635-1.452), p = 0.846]. The positive-to-analyzed LN proportion demonstrated a strong prognostic factor for a low rate (1 positive to ≤1.5 analyzed) [HR = 1.567 (1.156-2.126), p = 0.004], and analysis derived from the results demonstrated that a "negative LN margin" improves survival. Nomograms shows that tumor size is the main factor of axillary burden. CONCLUSION: Macrometastasis of two LNs is a poor prognostic factor, similar to pN2, in SLNB (-like) patients; more extensive studies including preconized therapies must be done in order to corroborate or refute the resistance of this prognostic difference in patients with two macrometastatic lymph nodes within few resected.

Shorter Maintenance Therapy in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: The Experience of the Prospective, Randomized Brazilian GBTLI ALL-93 Protocol.

AIM: Maintenance therapy is an important phase of the childhood ALL treatment, requiring 2-year long therapy adherence of the patients and families. Weekly methotrexate with daily 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) constitutes the backbone of maintenance therapy. Reduction in the maintenance therapy could overweight problems related with poverty of children with ALL living in limited-income countries (LIC). OBJECTIVE: To compare, prospectively, the EFS rates of children with ALL treated according to two maintenance regimens: 18 vs. 24 months duration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From October 1993 to September 1999, 867 consecutive untreated ALL patients <18 years of age were treated according to the Brazilian Cooperative Group for Childhood ALL Treatment (GBTLI) ALL-93 protocol. Risk classification was based exclusively on patient's age and leukocyte count (NCI risk group) and clinical extra medullary involvement of the disease. Data were analyzed by the intention-to-treat approach. RESULTS: Fourteen patients (1.6%) were excluded: wrong diagnosis (n = 7) and previous corticosteroid (n = 7). Of the 853 eligible patients, 421 were randomly allocated, at study enrollment, to receive 18-month (group 1) and 432 to receive 24-month (group 2) maintenance therapy. Complete remission rate was achieved in 96% of the patients (817/853). Twenty-eight patients (3.4%) died during the induction phase. Thirty-four patients (4.0%) were lost to follow-up. The overall EFS was 66.1 ± 1.7% at 15 years. No difference was seen according to maintenance: EFS15y was 65.8 ± 2.3% (group 1) and 66.3 ± 2.3% (group 2; p = 0.79). No difference between regimens was detected after stratifying the analyses according to factors associated with adverse prognosis in this study (age group <1 year or >10 years and high WBC at diagnosis). Overall death in remission rate was 6.85% (56 patients). Deaths during maintenance were 13 in group 1 and 12 in group 2, all due to infection. Over 15 years of follow-up, two patients both from group 2 presented a second malignancy (Hodgkin's disease and thyroid carcinoma) after 8.3 and 11 years off therapy, respectively. CONCLUSION: Six-month reduction of maintenance therapy in ALL children treated according to the GBTLI ALL-93 protocol provided the same overall outcome as 2-year duration regimen.

Parasitological and immunological diagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

This study examined the frequency of Strongyloides stercoralis infection in patients with gastrointestinal cancer through parasitological and immunological tests. A total of 77 patients were evaluated, 33 with gastrointestinal cancer and 44 controls with other types of cancers. All the patients were undergoing chemotherapy and 14 (18.2%) were receiving concomitant radiotherapy. For a parasitological diagnosis, we applied the Baermann and Lutz methods. The immunological diagnosis involved the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect IgG antibodies using Strongyloides ratti antigens. The frequency of positive S. stercoralis in gastrointestinal cancer diagnosed by parasitological methods was 3 cases (9.1%), by serology it was 8 cases (24.2%). In the control group 1 case (2.3%) of S. stercoralis was diagnosed by parasitological methods and 2 cases (4.5%) by immunological tests (p<0.05). Patients with gastrointestinal cancer had a 6.7-fold greater chance of testing positive for S. stercoralis infection. Our data highlight the importance of parasitological and immunological diagnosis for S. stercoralis in patients with gastrointestinal cancer living in endemic areas of strongyloidiasis, since they have a higher risk of becoming infected with S. stercoralis than patients with other types of cancer.