Cancer care Ontario guideline recommendations for hormone receptor testing in breast cancer

Discordant and Converting Receptor Expressions in Brain Metastases from Breast Cancer: MRI-Based Non-Invasive Receptor Status Tracking

Discordance and conversion of receptor expressions in metastatic lesions and primary tumors is often observed in patients with brain metastases from breast cancer. Therefore, personalized therapy requires continuous monitoring of receptor expressions and dynamic adaptation of applied targeted treatment options. Radiological in vivo techniques may allow receptor status tracking at high frequencies at low risk and cost. The present study aims to investigate the potential of receptor status prediction through machine-learning-based analysis of radiomic MR image features. The analysis is based on 412 brain metastases samples from 106 patients acquired between 09/2007 and 09/2021. Inclusion criteria were as follows: diagnosed cerebral metastases from breast cancer; histopathology reports on progesterone (PR), estrogen (ER), and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) receptor status; and availability of MR imaging data. In total, 3367 quantitative features of T1 contrast-enhanced, T1 non-enhanced, and FLAIR images and corresponding patient age were evaluated utilizing random forest algorithms. Feature importance was assessed using Gini impurity measures. Predictive performance was tested using 10 permuted 5-fold cross-validation sets employing the 30 most important features of each training set. Receiver operating characteristic areas under the curves of the validation sets were 0.82 (95% confidence interval [0.78; 0.85]) for ER+, 0.73 [0.69; 0.77] for PR+, and 0.74 [0.70; 0.78] for HER2+. Observations indicate that MR image features employed in a machine learning classifier could provide high discriminatory accuracy in predicting the receptor status of brain metastases from breast cancer.

Characteristics and impact of interventions to support healthcare providers' compliance with guideline recommendations for breast cancer: a systematic literature review

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) offer evidence-based recommendations to improve quality of healthcare for patients. Suboptimal compliance with breast cancer guideline recommendations remains frequent, and has been associated with a decreased survival. The aim of this systematic review was to characterize and determine the impact of available interventions to support healthcare providers' compliance with CPGs recommendations in breast cancer healthcare.

METHODS

We searched for systematic reviews and primary studies in PubMed and Embase (from inception to May 2021). We included experimental and observational studies reporting on the use of interventions to support compliance with breast cancer CPGs. Eligibility assessment, data extraction and critical appraisal was conducted by one reviewer, and cross-checked by a second reviewer. Using the same approach, we synthesized the characteristics and the effects of the interventions by type of intervention (according to the EPOC taxonomy), and applied the GRADE framework to assess the certainty of evidence.

RESULTS

We identified 35 primary studies reporting on 24 different interventions. Most frequently described interventions consisted in computerized decision support systems (12 studies); educational interventions (seven), audit and feedback (two), and multifaceted interventions (nine). There is low quality evidence that educational interventions targeted to healthcare professionals may improve compliance with recommendations concerning breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. There is moderate quality evidence that reminder systems for healthcare professionals improve compliance with recommendations concerning breast cancer screening. There is low quality evidence that multifaceted interventions may improve compliance with recommendations concerning breast cancer screening. The effectiveness of the remaining types of interventions identified have not been evaluated with appropriate study designs for such purpose. There is very limited data on the costs of implementing these interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

Different types of interventions to support compliance with breast cancer CPGs recommendations are available, and most of them show positive effects. More robust trials are needed to strengthen the available evidence base concerning their efficacy. Gathering data on the costs of implementing the proposed interventions is needed to inform decisions about their widespread implementation.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

CRD42018092884 (PROSPERO).

Pathological Diagnosis, Work-Up and Reporting of Breast Cancer 1st Central-Eastern European Professional Consensus Statement on Breast Cancer

This text is based on the recommendations accepted by the 4th Hungarian Consensus Conference on Breast Cancer, modified on the basis of the international consultation and conference within the frames of the Central-Eastern European Academy of Oncology. The recommendations cover non-operative, intraoperative and postoperative diagnostics, determination of prognostic and predictive markers and the content of cytology and histology reports. Furthermore, they address some specific issues such as the current status of multigene molecular markers, the role of pathologists in clinical trials and prerequisites for their involvement, and some remarks about the future.

Oncotype DX Predictive Nomogram for Recurrence Score Output: The Novel System ADAPTED01 Based on Quantitative Immunochemistry Analysis

PURPOSE

Oncotype DX (ODX) predicts breast cancer recurrence risk, guiding the choice of adjuvant treatment. In many countries, access to the test is not always available. We used correlation between phenotypical tumor characteristics, quantitative classical immunohistochemistry (IHC), and recurrence score (RS) assessed by ODX to develop a decision supporting system for clinical use.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Breast cancer patients who underwent ODX testing between 2014 and 2018 were retrospectively included in the study. The data selected for analysis were age, menopausal status, and pathologic and IHC features. IHC was performed with standardized quantitative methods. The data set was split into two subsets: 70% for the training set and 30% for the internal validation set. Statistically significant features were included in logistic models to predict RS ≤ 25 or ≤ 20. Another set was used for external validation to test reproducibility of prediction models.

RESULTS

The internal set included 407 patients. Mean (range) age was 53.7 (31-80) years, and 222 patients (54.55%) were > 50 years old. ODX results showed 67 patients (16.6%) had RS between 0 and 10, 272 patients between 11 and 25 (66.8%), and 68 patients > 26 (16.6%). Logistic regression analysis showed that RS score (for threshold ≤ 25) was significantly associated with estrogen receptor (P = .004), progesterone receptor (P < .0001), and Ki-67 (P < .0001). Generalized linear regression resulted in a model that had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 92.2 (sensitivity 84.2%, specificity 80.1%) and that was well calibrated. The external validation set (183 patients) analysis confirmed the model performance, with an AUC of 82.3 and a positive predictive value of 91%. A nomogram was generated for further prospective evaluation to predict RS ≤ 25.

CONCLUSION

RS was related to quantitative IHC in patients with RS ≤ 25, with a good performance of the statistical model in both internal and external validation. A nomogram for enhancing clinical approach in a cost-effective manner was developed. Prospective studies must test this application in clinical practice.

Adjuvant endocrine therapy for early breast cancer: a systematic review of the evidence for the 2014 Cancer Care Ontario systemic therapy guideline

BACKGROUND

Cancer Care Ontario's Program in Evidence-Based Care (pebc) recently created an evidence-based consensus guideline on the systemic treatment of early breast cancer. The evidence for the guideline was compiled using a systematic review to answer the question "What is the optimal systemic therapy for patients with early-stage, operable breast cancer, when patient and disease factors are considered?" The question was addressed in three parts: cytotoxic chemotherapy, endocrine treatment, and her2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2)-targeted therapy.

METHODS

For the systematic review, the literature in the medline and embase databases was searched for the period January 2008 to May 2014. The Standards and Guidelines Evidence directory of cancer guidelines and the Web sites of major oncology guideline organizations were also searched. The basic search terms were "breast cancer" and "systemic therapy" (chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, targeted agents, ovarian suppression), and results were limited to randomized controlled trials (rcts), guidelines, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

RESULTS

Several hundred documents that met the inclusion criteria were retrieved. Meta-analyses from the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group encompassed many of the rcts found. Several additional studies that met the inclusion criteria were retained, as were other guidelines and systematic reviews.

SUMMARY

The results of the systematic review constitute a comprehensive compilation of high-level evidence, which was the basis for the 2014 pebc guideline on systemic therapy for early breast cancer. The review of the evidence for systemic endocrine therapy (adjuvant tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors, and ovarian ablation and suppression) is presented here; the evidence for chemotherapy and her2-targeted treatment-and the final clinical practice recommendations-are presented separately in this supplement.

Low concordance of biomarkers in histopathological and cytological material from breast cancer

AIMS

The aim of this study was to investigate in primary breast cancer the congruency of routine clinical predictive biomarker evaluations, including ER, PR and Ki67, obtained using immunocytochemistry (ICC) and immunohistochemistry (IHC).

METHODS AND RESULTS

Clinicopathological data were collected on all women diagnosed with primary breast cancer at Karolinska University Hospital in 2011. A total of 346 patients were included in a retrospective paired comparison of predictive biomarker evaluations on direct smear ICC and IHC. This showed a low congruency between findings with the two methods, especially evident for Ki67 (κ = 0.35-0.42). By suggested adjustments to ICC cut-offs, we managed to improve the inter-rater agreement of Ki67 classification slightly to κ = 0.46.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that routine clinical ICC and IHC evaluations of predictive biomarkers produce discordant results. Consequently, basing therapeutic decisions on cytology with cut-offs defined for IHC induces a risk that patients will receive suboptimal therapy. However, our analysis shows that local adjustments to biomarker cut-off levels may improve congruency and increase the probability of correct classifications.

Academic and nonacademic laboratories perform equally on CIQC immunohistochemistry proficiency testing

OBJECTIVES

To test whether academic centers (ACs) are more successful than nonacademic centers (NACs) in immunohistochemistry (IHC) external quality assessment challenges in the Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control (CIQC) program.

METHODS

Results of 9 CIQC challenges for breast cancer marker (BM) and various non-breast cancer marker (NBM) tests were examined. Success rates were compared between AC/NAC laboratories and those located in small or large cities. Performance was also correlated with annual IHC case volumes.

RESULTS

There was no statistically significant difference in performance in any of the comparisons. However, overall performance on BM was significantly better (P < .0001, t test) than on NBM tests regardless of AC/NAC nature or city size. The mean failure rate on NBM was approximately twice that of BM tests.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that recent emphasis on breast hormone IHC quality assurance has led to improved test quality.

Hormone receptor expression in breast cancer: postanalytical issues

Hormone receptor expression is a critical part of the pathological evaluation of breast cancer. Underpinning not only therapeutic decisions and prognosis, oestrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) have been a consistent thread in the expanding knowledge of breast cancer. Accurate laboratory testing requires care and precision in preanalytical, analytical and postanalytical processes. In this report, postanalytical issues of pathologist interpretation of ER and PR status in breast cancer are discussed. Apart from key elements of the actual pathological assessment, it is important to realise that there are additional factors that can impact on sensitivity, specificity and dynamic range of hormone receptor expression as rendered on pathology. These include tumour characteristics and heterogeneity, biological changes of tumour progression and interacting molecules, all of which can influence the degree of hormone responsiveness in a particular individual with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. There is a need to ensure participation in quality assurance programmes and slide exchanges, as well as to constantly keep abreast of emerging data on clinical trials and outcomes of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.