The efficacy of local anesthetic wound infiltration for the treatment of acute and chronic postoperative pain is controversial and there are no detailed studies. The primary objective of this study ...was to evaluate the influence of ropivacaine wound infiltration on chronic pain after breast surgery.
In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study, 236 patients scheduled for breast cancer surgery were randomized (1:1) to receive ropivacaine or placebo infiltration of the wound, the second and third intercostal spaces and the humeral insertion of major pectoralis. Acute pain, analgesic consumption, nausea and vomiting were assessed every 30 min for 2 h in the postanesthesia care unit and every 6 h for 48 h. Chronic pain was evaluated 3 months, 6 months, and 1 yr after surgery by the brief pain inventory, hospital anxiety and depression, and neuropathic pain questionnaires.
Ropivacaine wound infiltration significantly decreased immediate postoperative pain for the first 90 min, but did not decrease chronic pain at 3 months (primary endpoint), or at 6 and 12 months postoperatively. At 3 months, the incidence of chronic pain was 33% and 27% (P = 0.37) in the ropivacaine and placebo groups, respectively. During follow-up, brief pain inventory, neuropathic pain, and anxiety increased over time in both groups (P < 0.001) while depression remained stable. No complications occurred.
This multicenter, prospective study shows that ropivacaine wound infiltration after breast cancer surgery decreased immediate postoperative pain but did not decrease chronic pain at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively.
Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NET) has shown efficacy in terms of clinical response and surgical outcome in postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer ...(ER+/HER2- BC) but monitoring of tumor response is challenging. The aim of the present study was to investigate the value of an early metabolic response compared to morphological and pathological responses in this population.
This was an ancillary study of CARMINA 02, a phase II clinical trial evaluating side-by-side the efficacy of 4 to 6 months of anastrozole or fulvestrant. Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography using 2-deoxy-2-
Ffluoro-D-glucose (FDG-PET/CT) scans were performed at baseline (M0), early after 1 month of treatment (M1) and pre-operatively in 11 patients (74.2 yo ± 3.6). Patients were classified as early "metabolic responders" (mR) when the decrease of SUVmax was higher than 40%, and "metabolic non-responders" (mNR) otherwise. Early metabolic response was compared to morphological response (palpation, US and MRI), variation of Ki-67 index, pathological response according to the Sataloff classification and also to Preoperative Endocrine Prognostic Index (PEPI) score. It was also correlated with overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS).
Tumor size measured on US and on MRI was smaller in mR than mNR, with the highest statistically significant difference at M1 (p = 0.01 and 7.1 × 10
, respectively). No statistically significant difference in the variation of tumor size between M0 and M1 assessed on US or MRI was observed between mR and mNR. mR had a better clinical response: no progressive disease in mR vs 2 in mNR and 2 partial response in mR vs 1 partial response in mNR. One patient with a pre-operative complete metabolic response had the best pathological response. Pathological response did not show any statistically significant difference between mR and mNR. mR had better OS and RFS (Kaplan-Meier p = 0.08 and 0.06, respectively). All cancer-related events occurred in mNR: 3 patients died, 2 of them from progressive disease.
FDG-PET/CT imaging could become a "surrogate marker" to monitor tumor response, especially as NET is a valuable treatment option in postmenopausal women with ER+/HER2- BC.
Background
There exist no recommendations as to how aggregate research results should best be disclosed to long‐term cohort participants.
Objective
To study the impact of cohort results disclosure ...documents of various kinds on participants’ satisfaction.
Design
Randomized study with a 2x2 factorial design.
Setting and participants
The GENEPSO‐PS cohort is used to study the psychosocial characteristics and preventive behaviour of both BRCA1/2 carriers and non‐carriers; 235 participants wishing to receive ‘information about the survey results’ answered a self‐administered questionnaire.
Interventions
The impact of providing the following items in addition to a leaflet about aggregate psychosocial research results was investigated (i) an up‐to‐date medical information sheet about BRCA1/2 genetic topics, (ii) a photograph with the names of the researchers.
Main outcome measures
Satisfaction profiles drawn up using cluster analysis methods.
Results
Providing additional medical and/or research team information had no significant effect on satisfaction. The patients attributed to the ‘poorly satisfied’ group (n = 60, 25.5%) differed significantly from those in the ‘highly satisfied’ group (n = 51, 21.7%): they were younger odds ratio (OR) = 0.96, 95% confidence interval (0.92–0.99), P = 0.028, less often had a daughter OR = 4.87 (1.80–13.20), P = 0.002, had reached a higher educational level OR = 2.94 (1.24–6.95), P = 0.014 and more frequently carried a BRCA1/2 mutation OR = 2.73 (1.20–6.23), P = 0.017.
Conclusions
This original approach to disclosing research results to cohort participants was welcomed by most of the participants, but less by the more educated and by BRCA1/2 carriers. Although an easily understandable document is necessary, it might also be worth providing some participants with more in‐depth information.
Breast cancers (BC) are rare in men and are often caused by constitutional predisposing factors. In women, mosaic BRCA1 promoter methylations (MBPM) are frequent events, detected in 4–8% of healthy ...subjects. This constitutional epimutation increases risk of early-onset and triple-negative BC. However, the role of MBPM in male BC predisposition has never been assessed. We screened 40 blood samples from men affected by BC, and performed extensive tumour analysis on MBPM-positive patients. We detected two patients carrying MBPM. Surprisingly, tumour analysis revealed that neither of these two male BCs were caused by the constitutional BRCA1 epimutations carried by the patients.
•Mosaic BRCA1 promoter methylations (MBPM) are frequent epimutations in women.•We report the first two male breast cancer patients carrying MBPM.•They presented invasive breast cancers expressing estrogen receptors.•Their breast cancers were not due to BRCA1: no homologous recombination deficiency.•Additional studies are necessary to use MBPM status to guide clinical decisions.
To validate the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Recursive Partitioning Analysis (RTOG RPA) classification and determine independent prognostic factors, to create a simple and specific prognostic ...score for patients with brain metastases (BM) from breast carcinoma treated with whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT).
From January 1998 through December 2003, 132 patients with BM from breast carcinoma were treated with WBRT. We analyzed several potential predictors of survival after WBRT: age, Karnofsky performance status, RTOG-RPA class, number of BM, presence and site of other systemic metastases, interval between primary tumor and BM, tumor hormone receptor (HR) status, lymphocyte count, and HER-2 overexpression.
A total of 117 patients received exclusive WBRT and were analyzed. Median survival with BM was 5 months. One-year and 2-year survival rates were 27.6% (95% confidence interval CI 19.9-36.8%) and 12% (95% CI 6.5-21.2%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, RTOG RPA Class III, lymphopenia (< or =0.7 x 10(9)/L) and HR negative status were independent prognostic factors for poor survival. We constructed a three-factor prognostic scoring system that predicts 6-month and 1-year rates of overall survival in the range of 76.1-29.5% (p = 0.00033) and 60.9-15.9% (p = 0.0011), respectively, with median survival of 15 months, 5 months, or 3 months for patients with none, one, or more than one adverse prognostic factor(s), respectively.
This study confirms the prognostic value of the RTOG RPA classification, lymphopenia, and tumor HR status, which can be used to form a prognostic score for patients with BM from breast carcinoma.
Purpose
For differentiating tumor from inflammation and normal tissues, fluorodeoxyglucose (
18
FFDG) dual time point PET could be helpful. Albeit
18
FFLT is more specific for tumors than
18
FFDG; ...we explored the role of dual time point
18
FFLT-PET for discriminating benign from malignant tissues.
Methods
Before any treatment, 85 womens with de novo unifocal breast cancer underwent three PET acquisitions at 33.94 ± 8.01 min (PET30), 61.45 ± 8.30 min (PET60), and 81.06 ± 12.12 min (PET80) after
18
FFLT injection. Semiquantitative analyses of
18
FFLT uptake (SUV) were carried out on tumors, liver, bone marrow (4th thoracic vertebra (T4) and humeral head), descending thoracic aorta, muscle (deltoid), and contralateral normal breast. Repeated measures ANOVA tests and Tukey’s posttests were used to compare SUVmax of each site at the three time points.
Results
There was a significant increase in SUVmax over time for breast lesions (5.58 ± 3.80; 5.97 ± 4.56; 6.19 ± 4.42;
p
< 0.0001) (m ± SD for PET30, PET60, and PET80, respectively), and bone marrow (for T4, 8.21 ± 3.17, 9.64 ± 3.66, 10.85 ± 3.63,
p
< 0.0001; for humeral head, 3.36 ± 1.79, 3.87 ± 1.89, 4.39 ± 2.00,
p
< 0.0001). A significant decrease in SUVmax over time was observed for liver (6.79 ± 2.03; 6.24 ± 1.99; 5.57 ± 1.74;
p
< 0.0001), muscle (0.95 ± 0.28; 0.93 ± 0.29; 0.86 ± 0.20;
p
< 0.027), and aorta (1.18 ± 0.34; 1.01 ± 0.32; 0.97 ± 0.30;
p
< 0.0001). No significant difference was observed for SUVmax in contralateral breast (0.8364 ± 0.40; 0.78 ± 0.38; 0.80 ± 0.35).
Conclusion
18
FFLT-SUVmax increased between 30 and 80 min only in proliferating tissues. This could be helpful for discriminating between residual tumor and scar tissue.
Abstract Objectives. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the impact of integrated PET-CT on treatment management in ovarian carcinoma recurrence suspicion because of increased CA-125. ...Methods. Twenty-nine patients (mean age = 61 years), initially treated for ovarian carcinoma (FIGO stage I n = 2, stage II n = 3, stage III n = 21 and stage IV n = 3), presenting with increased CA-125 (mean = 160 IU/ml, range 33–1930), underwent subsequently a CT and a PET-CT scans. The recurrence was acknowledged by the referring physicians for all patients. The impact of PET-CT on patient’s management was evaluated by comparing the therapeutic decision mentioned respectively on the pre and post PET-CT questionnaires filled in by the oncologists. Results. The CT scan was positive in 22/29 patients (76%) and negative in 7/29 patients (24%). The PET-CT scan was positive in 27/29 patients (93%) and negative in 2/29 (7%) patients. Five out of the seven patients with a negative CT scan had a positive PET-CT scan. In comparison to CT scan alone, the PET-CT scan modified the disease distribution for 16 patients (55%; p < 0.001) in the following ways: more advanced disease ( n = 11), more limited disease ( n = 4), and different localizations ( n = 1). The assessment of pre and post PET-CT questionnaires showed a statistically significant change in the decision making for 10 patients (34%, p < 0.0001). Conclusion. This questionnaire-based study showed that PET-CT imaging allows a better restaging than CT and induces a change in clinical management in over one third of patients with suspected ovarian carcinoma recurrence on increased CA-125.
Radiation therapy appears to kill cells mainly by inducing DNA double-strand breaks. We investigated whether the DNA repair gene expression status might influence the risk of locoregional recurrence ...(LRR) in breast cancer patients.
We used a quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR-based approach to measure messenger RNA levels of 20 selected DNA repair genes in tumor samples from 97 breast cancer patients enrolled in a phase III trial (Centre René Huguenin cohort). Normalized mRNA levels were tested for an association with LRR-free survival (LRR-FS) and overall survival (OS). The findings were validated in comparison with those of an independent cohort (Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) cohort). Multivariate analysis encompassing known prognostic factors was used to assess the association between DNA repair gene expression and patient outcome.
RAD51 was the only gene associated with LRR in both cohorts. With a median follow-up of 126 months in the CRH cohort, the 5-year LRR-FS and OS rates were 100% and 95% in the 61 patients with low RAD51 expression, compared with 70% and 69% in the 36 patients with high RAD51 expression, respectively (p < 0.001). RAD51 overexpression was associated with a higher risk of LRR (hazard ratio HR, 12.83; 95% confidence interval CI, 3.6-45.6) and death (HR, 4.10; 95% CI, 1.7-9.7). RAD51 overexpression was also significantly associated with shorter LRR-FS and OS in the NKI cohort.
Overexpression of RAD51, a key component of the homologous DNA repair pathway, is associated with poor breast cancer outcome. This finding warrants prospective studies of RAD51 as a prognosticator and therapeutic target.
In a French national cohort of unaffected females carriers/non-carriers of a BRCA1/2 mutation, long-term preventive strategies and breast/ovarian cancer risk perceptions were followed up to 5 years ...after test result disclosure, using self-administered questionnaires. Response rate was 74%. Carriers (N=101) were younger (average age ± SD=37 ± 10) than non-carriers (N=145; 42 ± 12). There were four management strategies that comprised 88% of the decisions made by the unaffected carriers: 50% opted for breast surveillance alone, based on either magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other imaging (31%) or mammography alone (19%); 38% opted for either risk reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) and breast surveillance, based on MRI and other imaging (28%) or mammography alone (10%). The other three strategies were: risk reducing mastectomy (RRM) and RRSO (5%), RRM alone (2%) and neither RRM/RRSO nor surveillance (6%). The results obtained for various age groups are presented here. Non-carriers often opted for screening despite their low cancer risk. Result disclosure increased carriers' short-term high breast/ovarian cancer risk perceptions (P ≤ 0.02) and decreased non-carriers' short- and long-term perceptions (P<0.001). During follow-up, high breast cancer risk perceptions increased with time among those who had no RRM and decreased in the opposite case; high ovarian cancer risk perceptions increased further with time among those who had no RRSO and decreased in the opposite case; RRSO did not affect breast cancer risk perceptions. Informed decision-making involves letting women know whether opting for RRSO and breast MRI surveillance is as effective in terms of survival as RRM and RRSO.