Risk of second primary breast cancer among cancer survivors: Implications for prevention and screening practice

Optimal Surrogate-Assisted Sampling for Cost-Efficient Validation of Electronic Health Record Outcomes

Electronic Health Record (EHR) databases are an increasingly valuable resource for observational studies. However, misclassification of EHR-derived outcomes due to imperfect phenotyping leads to bias, inflated type I error, and reduced power in risk-factor association studies. On the other hand, manual chart review to validate outcomes is both cost-prohibitive and time-consuming, and a randomly selected validation sample may not yield sufficient cases to support precise model estimation when the disease is rare. Sampling procedures have been developed for maximizing computational and statistical efficiency in settings where the true disease status is known. However, less work has been done in measurement constrained settings, particularly when an informative surrogate outcome is available. Motivated by this gap, we propose an Optimal Subsampling strategy with Surrogate-Assisted Two-step procedure (OSSAT) to guide cost-effective chart review in measurement constrained settings. The sampling weight in OSSAT leverages information contained in the potentially misclassified phenotype and covariates to prioritize observations most informative for the model of interest. We compare our proposed weight with existing approaches through simulations under various covariate distributions, differential misclassification rates and degrees of surrogate accuracy. We then apply our proposed weighting schemes to a study of risk factors for second breast cancer events using a real EHR data set.

Risk factors for second primary breast cancer by laterality, age, and race and ethnicity

BACKGROUND

Epidemiological studies of risk factors for second primary breast cancer (SBC) have been conducted primarily in non-Hispanic White (NHW) women.

METHODS

A racially and ethnically diverse population-based pooled cohort of 9639 women with first primary stage I-III invasive breast cancer (FBC) was linked with the California Cancer Registry; 618 contralateral SBC (CSBC) and 278 ipsilateral SBC (ISBC), diagnosed more than 6 months after FBC, were identified. Using Fine and Gray models accounting for competing risks, we assessed associations of CSBC and ISBC risk with FBC clinical characteristics and epidemiological factors.

RESULTS

In younger women (FBC at age <50 years), higher CSBC risk was associated with ER/PR-negative FBC (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.68), breast cancer family history (HR = 2.20), and nulliparity (HR = 1.37). In older women (FBC at age ≥50 years), higher risk was associated with breast cancer family history (HR = 1.32), premenopausal status (HR = 1.49), overweight (HR = 1.39), and higher alcohol consumption (HR = 1.34). For ISBC, higher risk was associated with married status (HR = 1.94) in younger women, and overweight (HR = 1.60) among older women. For CSBC, HR estimates were generally similar across racial and ethnic groups. Even after adjustment for these risk factors, compared with NHW women, risk remained elevated for CSBC in younger African American, Asian American, and Hispanic women, and for ISBC in older African American and Hispanic women with ER/PR-positive FBC.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support genetic risk evaluation, enhanced screening, and lifestyle changes in women at higher risk of SBC. Additional risk factors must contribute to the unequal burden of SBC across racial and ethnic groups.

Survival prediction in second primary breast cancer patients with machine learning: An analysis of SEER database

BACKGROUND

Studies have found that first primary cancer (FPC) survivors are at high risk of developing second primary breast cancer (SPBC). However, there is a lack of prognostic studies specifically focusing on patients with SPBC.

METHODS

This retrospective study used data from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program. We selected female FPC survivors diagnosed with SPBC from 12 registries (from January 1998 to December 2018) to construct prognostic models. Meanwhile, SPBC patients selected from another five registries (from January 2010 to December 2018) were used as the validation set to test the model's generalization ability. Four machine learning models and a Cox proportional hazards regression (CoxPH) were constructed to predict the overall survival of SPBC patients. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used for feature selection. Model performance was assessed using time-dependent area under the ROC curve (t-AUC) and integrated Brier score (iBrier).

RESULTS

A total of 10,321 female FPC survivors with SPBC (mean age [SD]: 66.03 [11.17]) were included for model construction. These patients were randomly split into a training set (mean age [SD]: 65.98 [11.15]) and a test set (mean age [SD]: 66.15 [11.23]) with a ratio of 7:3. In validation set, a total of 3,638 SPBC patients (mean age [SD]: 66.28 [10.68]) were finally enrolled. Sixteen features were selected for model construction through univariate and multivariable Cox regression analyses. Among five models, random survival forest model showed excellent performance with a t-AUC of 0.805 (95 %CI: 0.803 - 0.807) and an iBrier of 0.123 (95 %CI: 0.122 - 0.124) on testing set, as well as a t-AUC of 0.803 (95 %CI: 0.801 - 0.807) and an iBrier of 0.098 (95 %CI: 0.096 - 0.103) on validation set. Through feature importance ranking, the top one and other top five key predictive features of the random survival forest model were identified, namely age, stage, regional nodes positive, latency, radiotherapy, and surgery.

CONCLUSIONS

The random survival forest model outperformed CoxPH and other machine learning models in predicting the overall survival of patients with SPBC, which was helpful for the monitoring of high-risk populations.

Pain and anxiety in patients with breast cancer treated with morphine versus tramal with virtual reality

The treatment of pain and anxiety in cancer patients includes both pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological approaches. The researchers of this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of morphine versus Tramal with virtual reality therapy (VR) in reducing pain and anxiety in female patients with breast cancer. The sample was composed of 80 women with breast cancer who where treated at a specialized cancer center in Jordan. A quasi-experimental design was used in the study intervention. When used with VR, the tramal analgesics did not differe significactly from the effect of morphine in reducing the pain and anxiety. However, both groups had a significant drop in the level of pain and anxiety. When combined with VR, the use of weak opioids such as Tramal will have nearly the same effect as strong opioids such as Morphine in reducing pain and anxiety in breast cancer patients.

Risk, molecular subtype and prognosis of second primary breast cancer: an analysis based on first primary cancers

Second primary breast cancer (SPBC) was potentially related to other cancers, which may impact its incidence, prognosis and therapeutic approaches. Nevertheless, few studies have characterized this relationship and analyzed the subtypes of SPBC. Our study intended to investigate the occurrence and prognosis of SPBC. We analyzed the patterns, clinical characteristics, standardized incidence ratio (SIR) and standardized mortality ratio (SMR) of patients with SPBC. The propensity score matching (PSM) approach was further used to balance the differences in clinical features between patients with primary breast cancer (PBC) and SPBC, then Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis was used to compare their overall survival and breast cancer-specific survival. Finally, a predictive model was constructed to estimate the 3- and 5-year survival rates of SPBC patients. We found that the SIR of individuals with SPBC was significantly higher in cancer survivors than in the general population (SIR=1.16, 95% CI=1.15-1.17, P<0.05). SPBC patients with first primary lung/bronchus cancer had a much higher SMR (SMR=1.71, 95% CI=1.58-1.85, P<0.05) compared with survivors of other malignancies. Individuals with SPBC had a larger proportion of the HR-/HER2- subtype than those with PBC. Particularly among survivors of estrogen-dependent ovarian and breast cancer, the proportion of the HR-/HER2- subtype of SPBC considerably rose. After propensity score matching, we discovered that SPBC patients' overall survival remained poorer than that of PBC patients (HR=1.43, 95% CI=1.39-1.47, P<0.001). However, the prognosis of SPBC in first primary thyroid cancer survivors was better than PBC patients (HR=0.64, 95% CI=0.55-0.75, P<0.001). Also, an extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model was developed to evaluate the 3-year (AUC=0.817) and 5-year survival (AUC=0.825) of SPBC patients. Our data demonstrated the distinct biological performance of SPBC with various first primary cancers. Furthermore, our findings revealed an indispensable role of first primary cancer (FPC) in the development of SPBC and provided an additional theoretical basis for the clinical follow-up and identification of SPBC.

Clinical characteristics and survival of second primary breast carcinoma with extramammary malignancies

Objectives

To investigate the characteristics, diagnosis, survival and prognosis of second primary breast carcinoma (SPBC).

Materials and methods

Records of 123 patients with SPBC in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute &amp; Hospital between December 2002 and December 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical characteristics, imaging features and survival were analyzed and comparisons between SPBC and breast metastases (BM) were made.

Results

Of 67156 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, 123 patients (0.18%) suffered previous extramammary primary malignancies. Of the 123 patients with SPBC, approximately 98.37%(121/123)were female. The median age was 55 years old (27-87). The average diameter of breast mass was 2.7 cm (0.5-10.7). Approximately 77.24% (95/123) of the patients presented with symptoms. The most common types of extramammary primary malignancies were thyroid, gynecological cancers, lung, and colorectal. Patients with the first primary malignant tumor of lung cancer were more likely to develop synchronous SPBC, and those with the first primary malignant tumor of ovarian cancer were more likely to develop metachronous SPBC. When comparing with BM, patients with SPBC were more often older (≥45 years old), at earlier stages (I/II), more microcalcification and less multiple breast masses in imaging. More than half (55.88%) of patients in the metachronous group developed primary breast cancer within 5 years after diagnosis of extramammary primary cancer. The median overall survival time was 71 months. Within 90 months, the prognosis of patients with synchronous SPBC was worse than that of patients with metachronous SPBC (p=0.014). Patients with BM had the worst outcome compared with patients with synchronous SPBC and metachronous SPBC (p&lt;0.001).ER/PR-negative status, an interval of less than 6 months between the onset of two tumors, a late stage of first primary malignancy, and an age of diagnosis of first primary malignancy greater than 60 years predicted a worse prognosis for patients with SPBC.

Conclusion

The possibility of SPBC should be considered during the follow-up of patients with primary extramammary malignancy, especially within 5 years of the onset of the first tumor. The stage of first primary malignancy and the age at diagnosis of first primary malignancy have an impact on the prognosis of patients with SPBC.

Risk prediction of second primary malignancies in primary colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasms patients: a population-based study

PURPOSE

In this study, we aimed to identify risk factors for developing second primary malignancies (SPMs) in colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) patients and develop a competing-risk nomogram to predict SPMs' probabilities quantitatively.

METHODS

Patients with colorectal NENs were retrospectively collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database during 2000-2013. Potential risk factors for SPMs' occurrence in colorectal NENs' patients were identified by the Fine and Gray's proportional sub-distribution hazards model. Then, a competing-risk nomogram was constructed to quantify SPMs' probabilities. The discriminative abilities and calibrations of this competing-risk nomogram were assessed by the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC) and calibration curves.

RESULTS

We identified 11,017 colorectal NENs' patients, and randomly divided them into training (n = 7711 patients) and validation (n = 3306 patients) cohorts. In the whole cohort, 12.4% patients (n = 1369) had developed SPMs during the maximum follow-up of approximately 19 years (median 8.9 years). Sex, age, race, primary tumor location, and chemotherapy were identified as risk factors for SPMs' occurrence in colorectal NENs' patients. Such factors were selected to develop a competing-risk nomogram and showed excellent predictive ability for SPMs' occurrence (the 3-, 5-, and 10-year AUC values were 0.631, 0.632, and 0.629 in the training cohort and 0.665, 0.639, 0.624 in the validation cohort, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

This research identified risk factors for SPMs' occurrence in colorectal NENs' patients. Competing-risk nomogram was constructed and proved to have good performance.

Clinical and sociodemographic risk factors associated with the development of second primary cancers among postmenopausal breast cancer survivors

BACKGROUND

Advancement in breast cancer (BC) diagnosis and treatment have increased the number of long-term survivors. Consequently, primary BC survivors are at a greater risk of developing second primary cancers (SPCs). The risk factors for SPCs among BC survivors including sociodemographic characteristics, cancer treatment, comorbidities, and concurrent medications have not been comprehensively examined. The purpose of this study is to assess the incidence and clinicopathologic factors associated with risk of SPCs in BC survivors.

METHODS

We analyzed 171, 311 women with early-stage primary BC diagnosed between January 2000 and December 2015 from the Medicare-linked Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER-Medicare) database. SPC was defined as any diagnosis of malignancy occurring within the study period and at least 6 months after primary BC diagnosis. Univariate analyses compared baseline characteristics between those who developed a SPC and those who did not. We evaluated the cause-specific hazard of developing a SPC in the presence of death as a competing risk.

RESULTS

Of the study cohort, 21,510 (13%) of BC survivors developed a SPC and BC was the most common SPC type (28%). The median time to SPC was 44 months. Women who were white, older, and with fewer comorbidities were more likely to develop a SPC. While statins [hazard ratio (HR) 1.066 (1.023-1.110)] and anti-hypertensives [HR 1.569 (1.512-1.627)] increased the hazard of developing a SPC, aromatase inhibitor therapy [HR 0.620 (0.573-0.671)] and bisphosphonates [HR 0.905 (0.857-0.956)] were associated with a decreased hazard of developing any SPC, including non-breast SPCs.

CONCLUSION

Our study shows that specific clinical factors including type of cancer treatment, medications, and comorbidities are associated with increased risk of developing SPCs among older BC survivors. These results can increase patient and clinician awareness, target cancer screening among BC survivors, as well as developing risk-adapted management strategies.

The Pattern of Second Primary Tumours in Postmenopausal Women with Prior Breast Cancer in Western Romania: A Retrospective, Single-Institution Study

With improved survival, more patients with prior breast cancer are at risk of having a second primary cancer diagnosed. The pattern and impact of second primary cancers following breast cancer is important for overall breast cancer therapeutic management. Our study is a first analysis of the trend of second primary tumours over time in terms of incidence, sites with significantly elevated risks and correlation with stage, molecular subtype and therapeutic strategies conducted in Eastern Europe in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Patients and methods: Our study population included 28 patients with prior breast cancer (BC) and second primary tumours, which were diagnosed and treated in our Institution between 2004 and 2017. The criteria for selection were based on the completeness of the documentation of the first treatment for breast cancer, stage of disease, molecular subtype, the site of origin of the second tumours and the survival data. Results: An increased risk of second primary cancer was associated with the 51–60 years age group (53.6%), with the greater prevalence in patients living in urban environments (82.1%). The use of chemotherapy increased the risk of the occurrence of gynecological second malignancies (75%). Our study is a first analysis of the trend of second primary tumours over time in terms of identifying sites with significantly elevated risks and correlation with therapeutic strategies conducted in Eastern Europe in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Conclusions: Our study is a first analysis of the trend of second primary tumours over time in terms of correlation with luminal subtype and stage at diagnosis of primary cancer sites with significantly elevated risks and correlation with therapeutic strategies in postmenopausal women with breast cancer conducted in Eastern Europe. The reported time from primary to second primary malignancy onset, with a significantly higher rate for postmenopausal breast cancer patients, was less than one year (50%). With the advances and wider availability of genetic testing (e.g., gene panels), patients diagnosed with multiple primaries should be increasingly investigated for an underlying cancer predisposition. Postmenopausal women with breast cancer may benefit from increased surveillance and advice to avoid second malignancies.

Research on Effectiveness of Prior Cancer on Survival Outcomes for Patients with Nonmetastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Competing Risk Analysis and Propensity Score Matching Analysis of the SEER Database

Introduction

Knowledge of the effect of prior cancer on long-term survival outcomes for patients with nonmetastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remained unclear. The aim of this study was to explore and identify the effectiveness of prior cancer on breast cancer-specific death (BCSD) and other cause-specific death (OCSD) in patients with nonmetastatic TNBC.

Materials and Methods

Data of 29,594 participants with nonmetastatic TNBC patients were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2010 to 2016. Prognostic predictors were identified by propensity score matching (PSM) analysis combined with univariate cumulative incidence function (CIF) and multivariate Fine and Gray competitive risk analyses.

Results

Among the women with nonmetastatic TNBC included in the unmatched cohort, a total of 5,375 (18.2%) subjects had prior cancers (P-TNBC) and 24,219 (81.8%) had no prior cancer (NP-TNBC). Patients with P-TNBC tended to have poorer BCSD (Gray's test, p=0.0131) and OCSD (Gray's test, p=0.0009) in comparison with those with NP-TNBC after PSM. However, the risk of BCSD (p=0.291) and OCSD (p=0.084) found no difference among P-TNBC patients with one prior cancer and two or more prior cancers after PSM. Additionally, subjects with younger age, advanced T stage, advanced N stage, and advanced differentiation grade tumors were likely to develop BCSD, whereas those with breast-conserving surgery (BCS), radiotherapy, or chemotherapy tended to have a lower incidence of BCSD.

Conclusion

Our study demonstrated that prior cancer was related to the worse BCSD and OCSD rate and could be identified as a reliable survival predictor for patients with nonmetastatic TNBC. This study may provide some reference value for the treatment mode of TNBC patients with prior cancer in the future.

Increased risk of breast cancer-specific mortality among cancer survivors who developed breast cancer as a second malignancy

Background

Cancer survivors who develop breast cancer as a second malignancy (BCa-2) are common. Yet, little is known about the prognosis of BCa-2 compared to first primary breast cancer (BCa-1).

Methods

Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we conducted a population-based cohort study including 883,881 patients with BCa-1 and 36,313 patients with BCa-2 during 1990–2015. Compared with patients with BCa-1, we calculated hazard ratios (HRs) of breast cancer-specific mortality among patients with BCa-2, using multivariable Cox regression.

Results

During the follow-up (median 5.5 years), 114,964 and 3829 breast cancer-specific deaths were identified among BCa-1 and BCa-2 patients, respectively. Patients with BCa-2 had more favorable tumor characteristics and received less intensive treatment e.g., surgery and chemo−/radio-therapy, compared to patients with BCa-1. When adjusting for demographic factors, patients with BCa-2 were at similar risk of breast cancer-specific mortality (HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.97–1.03) compared to patients with BCa-1. However, when additionally controlling for tumor characteristics and treatment modes, BCa-2 patients were at an increased risk of breast cancer-specific mortality (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.08–1.15). The risk elevation was particularly greater when the first malignancy was lung, bladder, ovarian or blood malignancy (HRs 1.16–1.85), or when the first malignancy was treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.28–1.63).

Conclusions

Overall, patients with BCa-2 have worse breast cancer-specific survival, compared with their BCa-1 counterparts, although the risk elevation is mild. High-risk subgroups based on first malignancy’s characteristics may be considered for active clinical management.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08132-9.

Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Risk of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common cancer and the fifth deadliest in the world. Exposure to endocrine disrupting pollutants has been suggested to contribute to the increase in disease incidence. Indeed, a growing number of researchershave investigated the effects of widely used environmental chemicals with endocrine disrupting properties on BC development in experimental (in vitro and animal models) and epidemiological studies. The complex effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on hormonal pathways, involving carcinogenic effects and an increase in mammary gland susceptibility to carcinogenesis-together with the specific characteristics of the mammary gland evolving over the course of life and the multifactorial etiology of BC-make the evaluation of these compounds a complex issue. Among the many EDCs suspected of increasing the risk of BC, strong evidence has only been provided for few EDCs including diethylstilbestrol, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, dioxins and bisphenol A. However, given the ubiquitous nature and massive use of EDCs, it is essential to continue to assess their long-term health effects, particularly on carcinogenesis, to eradicate the worst of them and to sensitize the population to minimize their use.