Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of dose-dense neoadjuvant chemotherapy (ddNACT) and conventional neoadjuvant chemotherapy (cNACT) for locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Methods PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and VIP databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing ddNACT regimen with cNACT regimen for breast cancer. The time limit for retrieval was from establishment to March 1st, 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literatures, extracted data and assessed risk bias of included studies; then, meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 15.0 software. Results A total of 13 RCTs were included, including 3 258 patients, of which 1 625 patients received ddNACT and 1 633 patients received cNACT. The results of meta-analysis showed that the ddNACT regimen could improve the pathological complete response rate (pCR, P<0.001), objective response rate (ORR, P<0.001), and disease free survival (DFS, P=0.037) as compared with the cNACT regimen, there was no significant difference in the overall survival (OS) between the two groups (P=0.098). The incidences of grade 3 or 4 oral stomatitis (P=0.005) and neurotoxicity (P<0.001) were higher and the incidence of grade 3 or 4 neutropenia was lower (P=0.025) in the patients with ddNACT regimen, there were no significant differences in grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia (P=0.152), grade 3 or 4 anemia (P=0.123), chemotherapy completion rate (P=0.161) and breast conservative surgery rate (P=0.186) between the two groups. Patients with hormone receptor (HR) negative (HR–) were more likely to get pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P<0.001). ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that the use of anthracycline/taxane-based ddNACT regimen in LABC patients can improve the pCR, ORR, and DFS as compared with cNACT regimen. The pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the patients with HR– is higher than that with HR+. Prophylactic use of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor could significantly reduce the incidence of neutropenia, and most patients are tolerant to ddNACT regimen, 2 regimens have similar chemotherapy completion rates.
ObjectiveTo investigate whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone may affect recent anal function in patients with rectal cancer.MethodsThe structured data from the December 3, 2018 version of Database from Colorectal Cancer (DACCA) of West China Hospital were extracted . The follow-up investigation was performed within 2 weeks from December 3, 2018 to December 16, 2018 by the telephone. The postoperative anal function of patients with rectal cancer was evaluated by the lower anterior resection symptom (LARS) score questionnaire.ResultsA total of 209 patients with rectal cancer treated by the total mesolectal excision in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of West China Hospital were included. One hundred and thirty-six patients of them were only treated with TME, while the other 73 patients were treated by the TME and neoadjuvant chemotherapy. As for the baseline data of the 2 groups, there was no difference in the age, body mass index, gender, surgical procedure, differentiation degree or anastomotic position (P>0.050), while the pathological staging (P=0.022) and postoperative recovery time (P<0.001) had the significant differences between these 2 groups. The postoperative 1-year LARS score was not associated with the gender, age, body mass index, pathological stage, physical comorbidity, neoadjuvant chemotherapy or time of postoperative recovery (P>0.050), but which was associated with the heart disease (P=0.019) or position of anastomosis (P=0.005). Moreover, the multivariate analysis showed that the higher anastomosis position was a protective factor for the LARS after 1 year (OR=0.706, P=0.003).ConclusionsThere is no significant difference in postoperative anal function between patients with rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy or not . It suggests that neoadjuvant chemotherapy has no more additional adverse effects on postoperative anal function in patients either.
ObjectiveTo summarize recent research on the surgical treatment of breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to review the impact of NAC on the surgical treatment of breast cancer. MethodRelevant studies on NAC and surgical treatment of breast cancer from both domestic and international sources were reviewed. The literatures were analyzed, summarized, and discussed. ResultsFollowing NAC, the survival outcomes and risk of local recurrence in patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery were similar to those undergoing mastectomy. The using of image-guided minimally invasive biopsy accurately predicted pathological complete remission (pCR) of breast lesions after NAC, potentially allowed some breast cancer patients to undergo only radiation therapy after NAC, thus avoiding breast surgery. For patients with positive axillary lymph nodes, techniques such as dual-tracer, triple-tracer, and targeted axillary lymph node dissection had achieved clinical requirements in terms of detection rate and false-negative rate of sentinel lymph node biopsy, provided a safe alternative to axillary lymph node dissection. ConclusionsNAC is an important component of comprehensive breast cancer treatment. However, there is still controversy regarding the local treatment of the primary breast lesion and axillary lymph nodes after NAC. Currently, individualized treatment based on the specific circumstances of the patient remains the approach in clinical practice, aiming to achieve the optimal control of local recurrence and survival benefits for patients.
ObjectiveTo describe the research progress of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and gastric cancer in recent years, and to make reasonable prospect for future research direction.MethodWe collected a large amount of literatures on lncRNA and gastric cancer at home and abroad, and sort out various kinds of lncRNA, to make an in-depth interpretation of the relationship between lncRNA and gastric cancer and the mechanism of action, and then clarified the latest research progress.ResultsAt present, the molecular mechanism of the occurrence and development of gastric cancer had not been fully elucidated, but current studies had shown that lncRNA (H19, HOTTIP, UCA1, MEG3, MALAT1, HULC, HOTAIR, GAPLINC, and so on) had regulatory effects at multiple levels such as epigenetics, transcription, translation, chemoresistance, and more and more lncRNA had been discovered closely related to gastric cancer.ConclusionlncRNA is closely related to the occurrence and development of gastric cancer and may be a key target for the treatment of gastric cancer in the future.
ObjectiveTo explore the value of a decision tree (DT) model based on CT for predicting pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy therapy (NACT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC).MethodsThe clinical data and DICOM images of CT examination of 244 patients who underwent radical surgery after the NACT from October 2016 to March 2019 in the Database from Colorectal Cancer (DACCA) in the West China Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The ITK-SNAP software was used to select the largest level of tumor and sketch the region of interest. By using a random allocation software, 200 patients were allocated into the training set and 44 patients were allocated into the test set. The MATLAB software was used to read the CT images in DICOM format and extract and select radiomics features. Then these reduced-dimensions features were used to construct the prediction model. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, area under the ROC curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity values were used to evaluate the prediction model.ResultsAccording to the postoperative pathological tumor regression grade (TRG) classification, there were 28 cases in the pCR group (TRG0) and 216 cases in the non-pCR group (TRG1–TRG3). The outcomes of patients with LARC after NACT were highly correlated with 13 radiomics features based on CT (6 grayscale features: mean, variance, deviation, skewness, kurtosis, energy; 3 texture features: contrast, correlation, homogeneity; 4 shape features: perimeter, diameter, area, shape). The AUC value of DT model based on CT was 0.772 [95% CI (0.656, 0.888)] for predicting pCR after the NACT in the patients with LARC. The accuracy of prediction was higher for the non-PCR patients (97.2%), but lower for the pCR patients (57.1%).ConclusionsIn this preliminary study, the DT model based on CT shows a lower prediction efficiency in judging pCR patient with LARC before operation as compared with homogeneity researches, so a more accurate prediction model of pCR patient will be optimized through advancing algorithm, expanding data set, and digging up more radiomics features.
Objective To explore the accuracy of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting pathological complete remission (pCR) in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant therapy (NAC). Methods The clinicopathological data of 245 patients with invasive breast cancer who had completed the surgical resection after NAC in the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from March 2020 to April 2022 were collected retrospectively. According to the results of hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) detected by immunohistochemistry, all patients were divided into four subgroups: HR+/HER2–, HR+/HER2+, HR–/HER2+ and HR–/HER2–. The value of MRI in evaluating the efficacy of NAC was analyzed by comparing the postoperative pathological results as the gold standard with the residual tumor size assessed by preoperative MRI. Meanwhile, the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of pCR predicted by the evaluation results of enhanced MRI were analyzed, and further analyzed its predictive value for pCR of different subtypes of breast cancer. Results There were 88 cases (35.9%) achieved radiological complete response (rCR) and 106 cases (43.3%) achieved pCR in 245 patients. Enhanced MRI in assessing the size of residual tumors overestimated and underestimated 12.7% (31/245) and 9.8% (24/245) of patients, respectively. When setting rCR as the MRI assessment index the specificity, sensitivity and PPV were 84.2% (117/139), 62.3% (66/106) and 75.0% (66/88), respectively. When setting near-rCR as the MRI assessment index the specificity, sensitivity and PPV were 70.5% (98/139), 81.1% (86/106), and 67.7% (86/127), respectively. The positive predictive value of both MRI-rCR and MRI-near-rCR in evaluating pCR of each subtype subgroup of breast cancer was the highest in the HR–/HER2+ subgroup (91.7% and 83.3%, respectively). In each subgroup, compared with rCR, the specificity of near-rCR to predict pCR decreased to different degrees, while the sensitivity increased to different degrees. Conclusions Breast contrast-enhanced MRI can more accurately evaluate the efficacy of localized breast lesions after NAC, and can also more accurately predict the breast pCR after NAC. The HR–/HER2+ subgroup may be a potentially predictable population with pCR exemption from breast surgery. However, the accuracy of the evaluation of pCR by breast enhancement MRI in HR+/HER2– subgroup is low.
ObjectiveTo observe the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer, and to analyze the cause of the prediction error.MethodsData from 157 breast cancer patients who underwent NAC before surgery in Mianyang Central Hospital from January 2017 to January 2019 were analyzed. MRI parameters before and after NAC and pCR conditions were collected to analyze the parameters that produced false positives and false negatives.ResultsOf the 157 patients, 37 (23.6%) achieved pCR after NAC, and 33 (21.0%) achieved radiation complete remission (rCR) after NAC. The accuracy of MRI prediction was 70.7% (111/157), the sensitivity was 82.5% (99/120), and the specificity was 32.4% (12/37). A total of 25 cases did not achieve rCR, but postoperative evaluation achieved pCR (false positive), 21 cases achieved rCR, but postoperative evaluation did not achieve pCR (false negative). Diameter of tumor, peritumoral oedema, and background parenchymal enhancement were associated with MRI false positive prediction (P<0.05); gland density and tumor rim enhancement were associated with MRI false negative prediction (P<0.05).ConclusionMRI can be used as an important method to predict pCR after NAC in breast cancer patients, and its accuracy may be related to diameter of tumor, peritumoral oedema, background parenchymal enhancement, gland density, and tumor rim enhancement.
This paper aims to investigate the value of diffusiion weighted imaging (DWI) and different apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) methods to predict the curative effects of neoadjuvant chempotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer. From March 2010 to December 2012, seventy-one patients were pathologically confirmed invasive breast cancer by needle puncture biopsy received before surgery, and underwent magnetic resonance before and after NAC, the ADC were measured by mean ADC method and lower ADC method. The pathologic response after NAC was divided to major histological response (MHR) group and non-major histological response (NMHR) group according to Miller & Payne system. Results displayed that ADC values obtained before NAC, at the end of the second cycle of NAC, and after whole course of treatment, had good correlations between mean and lower ADC methods (the Pearson's correlation=0.699, 0.749 and 0.895, respectively). Significant difference in ADC obtained both with mean and lower ADC methods could be found between MHR and NMHR groups after the second cycle of NAC (P<0.05). After the second cycle of NAC, significant difference in the change rate of ADC could be found between MHR and NMHR groups by using lower ADC method (P<0.05), but not be found by using mean ADC method (P＞0.05). In conclusion, DWI could monitor the pathologic changes of breast cancer after NAC, and the lower ADC method might be used to evaluate the curative effect of NAC with the change rate of ADC.
ObjectiveTo investigate the relation between mammographic density (MD) and the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for patients with breast cancer. MethodsThe clinicopathologic data of patients diagnosed with breast cancer in the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from January 2019 to December 2021 and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study were collected. According to the 5th edition of the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System, the MD was classified into 4 categories: a, b, c, and d. Based on the pathological evaluation systems of Miller-Payne and Residual Cancer Burden, the new and improved pathological criteria was structured including the residual cancer cell and lymph node statuses to evaluate the pathological changes of breast cancer after NACT. After adjusting the factors affecting MD, the original model (only including MD categories as independent variables), the minimum adjustment model (adding age, body mass index, and menopausal status as independent variables), and the fully adjusted model (further including estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, Ki-67, axillary lymph node status at the initial diagnosis, and NACT regimen) were used to analyze the relation between MD and NACT effect. In the 3 models, the MD category a was used as the reference. ResultsA total of 287 patients with breast cancer were enrolled in this study. Thirty-eight, 76, 114, and 59 of whom with MD category a, b, c, and d respectively, and 14, 74, 117, and 82 of whom with grade L1, L2, L3, and L4 of NACT effect respectively. No matter in integrated patients or premenopausal patients, the results of the fully adjusted model showed that, the regression coefficient of MD classification was negative, and with the increase of MD classification, the odds ratio was <1 and showed a decreasing trend. ConclusionsFrom the results of this study, the increase of MD classification may have a negative impact on the effect of NACT. Namely, effect of NACT is poor in integrated patients or premenopausal patients of whom with higher MD. MD can be used as a predictor of NACT effect, so as to guide doctors in the selection and individual management of neoadjuvant therapy, and improve the prognosis of patients with breast cancer.
Objective To explore the tumor shrinking pattern, the image evaluation methods of the residual lesions after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and the indications, the resection range, the surgical margins, the management of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and axillary lymph nodes of breast conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods Domestic and foreign literatures about the breast conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy were collected and reviwed. Results Breast conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy raised the rate of breast conserving surgery and improved the postoperative life quality of patients, while the overall survival rate had no significant difference compared with mastectomy. Tumor shrinking pattern and its related factors after neoadjuvant chemotherapy remain required further study. At present, the indications for breast conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy still mainly refered to that for early stage breast cancer. Resection range was more recognized to the scope of residual tumor lesions after chemotherapy. The margins were more widely accepted as which were without tumor involved. Although there were some controversies about the use of SLNB and the management of axillary lymph nodes based on the results of SLNB in breast conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, it was still considered necessary at the basis of the accurate biopsy technique acquired. Conclusions At present, breast conserving treatment after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is considered safe and effective. However, it is necessary to proceed cautiously under the conditions of adequate communication of local recurrence rate, standardized local treatment, standard postoperative radiotherapy, systemic adjuvant therapy, and regular follow-up.