Breast conservative surgery and local recurrence

Identifying the Variables for Oncoplastic Reconstruction: Preoperative Assessment Tool for Breast Conserving Treatment

BACKGROUND

A wide range of surgical techniques has been described for breast conservation treatment (Oncoplasty) based on breast size and shape, as well as tumor size and location. However, there is a lack of standardization regarding the indications for oncoplastic reconstruction. This study aims to identify the presurgical parameters associated with poor cosmetic outcomes post-breast conserving treatment. We hope this preoperative model can assist in evaluating whether there is a need for oncoplastic intervention.

METHODS

The study group involved 136-adult females (age 35-77) who previously undergone breast conserving surgery and radiation, without oncoplastic intervention between 2007 and 2017. Patient demographics, medical and physical parameters were collected, and each patient filled Breast-QTM-questionnaire and six angles' photographs were taken. Patients' photographs were evaluated by 15 board-certified plastic surgeons. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify potential confounders for poor outcome in each of the experts' and patients' average-grades.

RESULTS

Our analysis identified several variables correlated with poor surgical outcome: high BMI, high chest-wall-circumference, high breast-width and larger volume-removed. The general-aesthetic-result as evaluated by our experts was favorably influenced by an upper lateral quadrant tumor while the breast shape was negatively influenced by a lower medial quadrant tumor. Interestingly, no correlation was found between the patients' and panel's evaluations, nor did we find any clinically significant parameter related to the patients' reported well-being.

CONCLUSION

Patients with high BMI, high chest-wall-circumference, large breast-width and larger inferomedial tumors could benefit from early plastic surgery evaluation and intervention. Patient's psychosocial well-being as well as sexual well-being are independent from positive surgical outcome evaluated by plastic surgeons.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Conventional ultrasound combined with contrast-enhanced ultrasound: could it be helpful for the diagnosis of thoracic wall recurrence after mastectomy?

OBJECTIVES

To develop a predictive model using conventional ultrasound combined with CEUS to identify thoracic wall recurrence after mastectomy.

METHODS

A total of 162 women with pathologically confirmed thoracic wall lesions (benign 79, malignant 83; median size 1.9 cm, ranging 0.3-8.0 cm) underwent a mastectomy and were checked by both conventional ultrasound and CEUS and were retrospectively included. Logistic regression models of B-mode ultrasound (US) and color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) with or without CEUS were established to assess the thoracic wall recurrence after mastectomy. The established models were validated by bootstrap resampling. The models were evaluated using calibration curve. The clinical benefit of models were assessed using decision curve analysis.

RESULTS

The area under the receiver characteristic was 0.823 (95% CI: 0.76, 0.88) for model using US alone, 0.898 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.94) for model using US combined with CDFI, and 0.959 (95% CI: 0.92, 0.98) for model using US combined with both CDFI and CEUS. The diagnostic performance of the US combined with CDFI was significantly higher than that of the US alone (0.823 vs 0.898, p = 0.002) but significantly lower than that of the US combined with both CDFI and CEUS (0.959 vs 0.898, p < 0.001). Moreover, the unnecessary biopsy rate of the US combined with both CDFI and CEUS was significantly lower than that of the US combined with CDFI (p = 0.037).

CONCLUSIONS

Compared to B-mode ultrasound and CDFI, CEUS improves the diagnostic performance to evaluate thoracic wall recurrence after mastectomy.

KEY POINTS

• CUES is an effective supplementary method for US in the diagnosis of thoracic wall recurrence after mastectomy. • CEUS combined with both US and CDFI can significantly improve the accuracy of diagnosis of thoracic wall recurrence after mastectomy. • CEUS combined with both US and CDFI can reduce the rate of unnecessary biopsy of thoracic wall lesions after mastectomy.

Modern Approaches to Oncoplastic Surgical Treatment

Partial breast reconstruction using oncoplastic techniques is performed at the time of lumpectomy and includes volume replacement techniques such as flaps and volume displacement techniques such as reduction and mastopexy. These techniques are used to preserve breast shape, contour, size, symmetry, inframammary fold position, and position of the nipple-areolar complex. Newer techniques such as auto-augmentation flaps and perforator flaps continue to broaden options and newer radiation therapy protocols will hopefully reduce side effects. Options for the oncoplastic approach now include higher risk patients as there is a larger repository of data on the safety and efficacy of this technique.

Triple-negative breast cancer: current treatment strategies and factors of negative prognosis

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the most common cause of death in working-age women. According to the results of immunohistochemical studies, 10-20% of cases revealed a triple-negative type of breast cancer. This subtype is characterized by significant proliferative activity and growth rate, aggressive clinical course, and early metastasis. This leads to a suspicious prognosis and, accordingly, encourages an increase of surgical treatment radicalism and aggressive systemic treatment. This review briefly analyzes existing treatment strategies for triple-negative breast cancer with a focus on surgical treatment. Surgical treatment is an integral part of complex therapy. Currently, the attention of researchers is focused not only on the radicalism of the operation, ensuring long-term survival, but also on achieving a good cosmetic result that determines the quality of life of patients. In this aspect, organ-preserving and prosthetic methods of operations are promising, the feasibility and effectiveness of which are being discussed. The relevance of choosing the optimal method of operation is evidenced by the lack of generally accepted approaches based on informative markers for the prognosis of the course of the disease. Therefore, the choice of the optimal method of surgical treatment taking into account the individual characteristics of the patient and the tumor, indications for chemotherapy, and radiation therapy remains an unresolved issue and requires further research.

Outcome reporting in therapeutic mammaplasty: a systematic review

Background

Therapeutic mammaplasty (TM) is an oncological procedure which combines tumour resection with breast reduction and mastopexy techniques. Previous systematic reviews have demonstrated the oncological safety of TM but reporting of critically important outcomes, such as quality of life, aesthetic and functional outcomes, are limited, piecemeal or inconsistent. This systematic review aimed to identify all outcomes reported in clinical studies of TM to facilitate development of a core outcome set.

Methods

Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and Web of Science were searched from inception to 5 August 2020. Included studies reported clinical outcomes following TM for adult women. Two authors screened articles independently for eligibility. Data were extracted regarding the outcome definition and classification type (for example, oncological, quality of life, etc.), time of outcome reporting and measurement tools.

Results

Of 5709 de-duplicated records, 148 were included in the narrative synthesis. The majority of studies (n = 102, 68.9 per cent) reported measures of survival and/or recurrence; approximately three-quarters (n = 75, 73.5 per cent) had less than 5 years follow-up. Aesthetic outcome was reported in half of studies (n = 75, 50.7 per cent) using mainly subjective, non-validated measurement tools. The time point at which aesthetic assessment was conducted was highly variable, and only defined in 48 (64.0 per cent) studies and none included a preoperative baseline for comparison. Few studies reported quality of life (n = 30, 20.3 per cent), functional outcomes (n = 5, 3.4 per cent) or resource use (n = 28, 18.9 per cent).

Conclusion

Given the oncological equivalence of TM and mastectomy, treatment decisions are often driven by aesthetic and functional outcomes, which are infrequently and inconsistently reported with non-validated measurement tools.

Repurposing drugs as novel triple negative breast cancer therapeutics

BACKGROUND

Among all the types of breast cancer (BC), triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive form having high metastasis and recurrence rate with limited treatment options. Conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy have lots of toxic side effects and also no FDA approved therapies are available till now. Repurposing of old clinically approved drugs towards various targets of TNBC is the new approach with lesser side effects and also leads to successful inexpensive drug development with less time consuming. Medicinal plants containg various phytoconstituents (flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, essential oils, tanins, glycosides, lactones) plays very crucial role in combating various types of diseases and used in drug development process because of having lesser side effects.

OBJECTIVE

The present review focuses in summarization of various categories of repurposed drugs against multitarget of TNBC and also summarizes the phytochemical categories that targets TNBC singly or in combination with synthetic old drugs.

METHODS

Literature information was collected from various databases such as Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and Medline to understand and clarify the role and mechanism of repurposed synthetic drugs and phytoconstituents aginst TNBC by using keywords like "breast cancer", "repurposed drugs", "TNBC" and "phytoconstituents".

RESULTS

Various repurposed drugs and phytochemicals targeting different signaling pathways that exerts their cytotoxic activities on TNBC cells ultimately leads to apoptosis of cells and also lowers the recurrence rate and stops the metastasis process.

CONCLUSION

Inhibitory effects seen in different levels, which provides information and evidences to researchers towards drug developments process and thus further more investigations and researches need to be taken to get the better therapeutic treatment options against TNBC.

Prediction of Local Recurrence After Oncoplastic Breast Surgery: Analysis of a Large Cohort

BACKGROUND

Oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS) is becoming an acceptable procedure for the surgical treatment of breast cancer; however, its safety and recurrence rate still need further clarification. This study evaluates the rate of local recurrence and its predictive factors after OBS in a large series of patients. Materials and methods This study was conducted between January 2008 and June 2018 in two centers in Iran. Patients underwent OBS, and baseline characteristics were recorded. Patients underwent regular follow-up; local recurrence rate, median time, and the hazard ratio of predictive factors were calculated. Also, a multivariate analysis was performed. Results A total of 676 patients with a mean age of 48 ± 10.7 y were included. The median follow-up time was 26.4 (first, third IQR: 13.2, 45.6) mo, and 37 (5.5%) patients were diagnosed with local recurrence. The median time to local recurrence was 22.0 (first, third IQR: 16.0, 32.8) mo. Pathological N stage, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, overexpression of HER2, and one surgery technique was associated with a higher risk of recurrence, while the expression of estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor (PR) decreased the risk of recurrence. PR status, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and pathological N stage remained significant in the final model for recurrence on multivariate analysis. Conclusion OBS is a safe technique with an acceptable risk of local recurrence. PR status, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and pathological N stage can predict recurrence in these patients with an acceptable power.

Biological Morphogenetic Surgery: A Minimally Invasive Procedure to Address Different Biological Mechanisms

We present a methodology called biological morphogenetic surgery (BMS) that can recover (enlarge or reduce) the shape/volume of anatomic structures/tissues affected by congenital or acquired malformations based on a minimally invasive procedure. This emerges as a new concept in which the main task of surgery is the biological modulation of different remodeling and repair mechanisms. When applied, for example, to a tuberous breast deformity, the "enlarging BMS" expands the retracted tissue surrounding the gland through a cutting tip of a needle being inserted through small incisions percutaneously, accounting for the biological activity of the grafted fat. The obtained spaces might be spontaneously occupied and later filled with autologous grafted fat, which promotes tissue expansion by eliciting adipogenesis and preventing fibrosis. The "reducing BMS" creates an interruption of the contact between the derma and the hypoderma of the abnormally large areola and then promotes adipocytes to induce a fibrotic reaction, leading to areola reduction. Current evidence suggests that BMS might induce a bivalent mesenchymalization of the adipocyte, which promotes either new adipogenesis and angiogenesis of local fat (expanding BMS) or the granulation tissue/fibrotic response (reducing BMS), thus leading to the physiological recovery of the affected structures/tissues to normality. Level of Evidence: 4.

Factors predicting local relapse and survival in patients treated with surgery for breast cancer

BACKGROUND

Assessment of local relapse in patients treated with surgery for breast cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This observational study included 673 patients treated with surgery for breast cancer between 2005 and 2010, who were monitored for a 7-year minimum follow-up period. The study was concluded on 2017 and yielded a total of 31 cases of local relapse.

RESULTS

4.6% of patients presented local relapse, most of them during the first 3 years of follow-up; 45% of patients with local relapse subsequently presented the disease at distant points. The association between the occurrence of local relapse and later onset of the disease at distant points was significant. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that negative results for the presence of progesterone receptors, the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the presence of the disease at distant points were factors that significantly influenced patient survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Almost half of the patients suffering relapse subsequently present the disease at distant points. Certain factors increase the aggressiveness of the disease, predict higher risk of relapse and determine its prognosis.

Central round block repair of large breast resection defects: oncologic and aesthetic outcomes

Background

The central round block repair is a volume displacement technique to reconstruct large wide local excision (WLE) defects in breasts with moderate ptosis or hypertrophy. There are limited published data on the outcomes of this technique.

Methods

Data were collected prospectively for 57 consecutive patients and follow up information obtained from patient records. The volume of breast resection was estimated geometrically from mammography. Aesthetic outcomes were assessed from clinical measurements and panel review of patient photographs.

Results

The median age was 51 [22-86] years and follow-up 5 (1.9-8.4) years. The median specimen resection weight was 50 [25-361] g and tumour size 25 [10-75] mm. Estimated volume of breast excised was 17.8% (6-31%). In total, 12/57 patients had incomplete margins: five patients had re-excision to achieve clear margins and seven required mastectomy. Two patients had local recurrence during the follow-up period, five developed distant metastases. Aesthetic data were completed for 35/50 patients. Twelve (34%) had no measurable asymmetry and 31 (89%) had a nipple position within 2 cm of the original height. Only two patients requested symmetrising surgery.

Conclusions

Central round block reconstruction of large defects after WLE is a safe technique with good aesthetic outcomes. Contralateral symmetrising surgery is not usually required.

Breast Cancer Status in Iran: Statistical Analysis of 3010 Cases between 1998 and 2014

Background

Breast cancer is the 5th leading cause of cancer death in Iranian women. This study analyzed 3010 women with breast cancer that had been referred to a cancer research center in Tehran between 1998 and 2014.

Methods

In this retrospective study, we analyzed 3010 breast cancer cases with 32 clinical and paraclinical attributes. We checked the data quality rigorously and removed any invalid values or records. The method was data mining (problem definition, data preparation, data exploration, modeling, evaluation, and deployment). However, only the descriptive analyses' results of the variables are presented in this article. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive study on breast cancer status in Iran.

Results

A typical Iranian breast cancer patient has been a 40–50-year-old married woman with two children, who has a high school diploma and no history of abortion, smoking, or diabetes. Most patients were estrogen and progesterone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor (HER) negative, and P53 negative. Most cases were detected in stage 2 with intermediate grade.

Conclusion

This study revealed original findings which can be used in national policymaking to find the best early detection method and improve the care quality and breast cancer prevention in Iran.

Aesthetic and functional outcome after breast conserving surgery - Comparison between conventional and oncoplastic resection

BACKGROUND

Recent studies implicate that oncoplastic breast cancer surgery provides better aesthetic outcome than conventional resection. Several factors have been associated with poor aesthetic outcome. This study aims to compare patient-reported aesthetic and functional outcome after conventional and oncoplastic resection and to evaluate prognostic factors for poor aesthetic outcome in a population-based setting.

METHODS

637 patients having breast conserving treatment (BCT) due to unilateral primary breast cancer at a single hospital district during 2010 were included. Aesthetic and functional outcome were evaluated using two questionnaires three years after surgery.

RESULTS

Questionnaires were returned by 379 (59%) patients; 293 (77%) of these had conventional and 86 (23%) oncoplastic resection. Patients in oncoplastic resection group had larger tumour diameter (p < 0.001), larger resection specimens (p < 0.001), and more often multifocal tumours (p = 0.032), node positive cancer (p = 0.029) and lower quadrant tumour localization (p = 0.007). Aesthetic outcome according to BCTOS questionnaire was good in 284 (75%) patients; 52 (61%) patients in the oncoplastic group and 230 patients (81%) in the conventional resection group, p < 0.001. Larger tumour diameter (p = 0.033), multifocality (p = 0.022), weight of resection specimen (<0.001) and oncoplastic surgery (p < 0.001) were predicting poor aesthetic outcome, when all patients were included. Tumour multifocality (p = 0.013) remained predictor of poor aesthetic outcome in conventional resection group but not in oncoplastic resection group.

CONCLUSIONS

Patient satisfaction to aesthetic outcome after BCT is high. Conventional resection provides good aesthetic outcome in appropriately selected patients. Oncoplastic resection enables BCT in patients with larger and multifocal tumours with favourable aesthetic outcome.

The role of oncoplastic breast conserving treatment for locally advanced breast tumors. A matching case-control study

Background

Breast conserving surgery (BCS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) is an infrequent procedure. In these patients the association with BCS and oncoplastic surgery (OS) is reported as a possible procedure in case-series, but there are limited case-control studies.

Methods

A matched case-control study evaluated LABC submitted to NC and BCS. We evaluated 78 patients submitted to doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide regimen followed by paclitaxel regimen. The match case-control proportion was 2:1 and the patients were selected by tumor size, clinical T stage and year of diagnosis.

Results

52 underwent classic BCS and 26 OS. The average size tumor was 5.25 cm and 88.5% of the tumors were larger than 3 cm. The clinical and pathological group characteristics were similar, except the weight of surgical specimens (p = 0.004), and surgical margins (p = 0.06), which were higher in OS group. The rate of complete pathologic response was 26.9%. 97.4% received postoperative radiotherapy. At 67.1 months of follow up, 10.2% had local recurrence (LR) and 12.8% locoregional recurrence (LRR) and 19.2% died because disease progression. The overall survival at 60 months was 81.7%. After surgery the disease free-survival at 60 months was 76.5%. The was no difference between groups related to pathologic response (p = 0.42), LR (p = 0.71), LRR (p = 1.00), overall survival (p = 0.99) and disease specific survival (p = 0.87).

Conclusion

This study corroborates the fact that OS is a safety procedure for LABC, offering the similar oncologic results observed in patients submitted to classic BCS.

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A matched case-control study evaluates oncoplastic techniques for locally advanced breast cancer.

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The size of tumors were bigger than other series.

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The matched case-control study was selected base on tumor size and year of diagnosis to decrease possible bias selection.

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The security of this procedure was evaluated based a long follow up.

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Oncoplastic surgery has the same results than conventional breast conserving surgery for locally advanced breast tumors.

Operative and Oncologic Outcomes in 9861 Patients with Operable Breast Cancer: Single-Institution Analysis of Breast Conservation with Oncoplastic Reconstruction

BACKGROUND

Oncoplastic reconstruction is an approach that enables patients with locally advanced or adversely located tumors to undergo breast conserving surgery (BCS). The objectives were to identify the use of BCS with oncoplastic reconstruction (BCS + R) and determine the operative and oncologic outcomes compared with other breast surgical procedures for breast cancer.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study interrogated a single institution's prospectively maintained databases to identify patients who underwent surgery for breast cancer between 2007 and 2014. Surgeries were categorized as BCS, BCS + R, total mastectomy (TM), or TM with immediate reconstruction (TM + R). Demographic and clinicopathologic characteristics and postoperative complications were analyzed.

RESULTS

There were 10,607 operations performed for 9861 patients. Median follow-up was 3.4 years (range, 0-9.1 years). The use of BCS + R had a nearly fourfold increase in the percentage of all breast cancer surgeries during the study period; 75 % of patients who underwent BCS + R had a T1 or T2 tumor. There was no difference in the use of BCS + R compared with BCS for any quadrant of the breast except the lower outer quadrant (11.1 vs. 6.8 %; p < .0001). BCS + R had a lower rate of seroma formation (13.4 vs. 18 %; p = .002) and positive or close margins compared with BCS (5.8 vs. 8.3 %; p = .04). There was no difference in overall survival or recurrence-free survival when comparing BCS and BCS + R.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients undergoing BCS + R are not disadvantaged in terms of complications and short-term (3-year) outcomes compared with BCS patients or patients who underwent TM.

True Local Recurrences after Breast Conserving Surgery have Poor Prognosis in Patients with Early Breast Cancer

Background:

This study was aimed at investigating clinical and histopathologic features of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrences (IBTR) and their effects on survival after breast conservation therapy.

Methods:

1,400 patients who were treated between 1998 and 2007 and had breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for early breast cancer (cT1-2/N0-1/M0) were evaluated. Demographic and pathologic parameters, radiologic data, treatment, and follow-up related features of the patients were recorded.

Results:

53 patients (3.8%) had IBTR after BCS within a median follow-up of 70 months. The mean age was 45.7 years (range, 27-87 years), and 22 patients (41.5%) were younger than 40 years. 33 patients (62.3%) had true recurrence (TR) and 20 were classified as new primary (NP). The median time to recurrence was shorter in TR group than in NP group (37.0 (6-216) and 47.5 (11-192) months respectively; p = 0.338). Progesterone receptor positivity was significantly higher in the NP group (p = 0.005). The overall 5-year survival rate in the NP group (95.0%) was significantly higher than that of the TR group (74.7%, p < 0.033). Multivariate analysis showed that younger age (<40 years), large tumor size (>20 mm), high grade tumor and triple-negative molecular phenotype along with developing TR negatively affected overall survival (hazard ratios were 4.2 (CI 0.98-22.76), 4.6 (CI 1.07-13.03), 4.0 (CI 0.68-46.10), 6.5 (CI 0.03-0.68), and 6.5 (CI 0.02- 0.80) respectively, p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

Most of the local recurrences after BCS in our study were true recurrences, which resulted in a poorer outcome as compared to new primary tumors. Moreover, younger age (<40), large tumor size (>2 cm), high grade, triple negative phenotype, and having true recurrence were identified as independent prognostic factors with a negative impact on overall survival in this dataset of patients with recurrent breast cancer. In conjunction with a more intensive follow-up program, the role of adjuvant therapy strategies should be explored further in young patients with large and high-risk tumors to reduce the risk of TR.