Neoadjuvant letrozole in postmenopausal estrogen and/or progesterone receptor positive breast cancer: a phase IIb/III trial to investigate optimal duration of preoperative endocrine therapy.

Background: In recent years, preoperative volume reduction of locally advanced breast cancers, resulting in higher rates of breast-conserving surgery (BCS), has become increasingly important also in postmenopausal women. Clinical interest has come to center on the third-generation nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitors (AIs), including letrozole, for such neoadjuvant endocrine treatment. This usually lasts 3-4 months and has been extended to up to 12 months, but optimal treatment duration has not been fully established.

Predictive value of syndecan-1 expression for the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy of primary breast cancer.

Background: The overexpression of syndecan-1 in breast carcinomas correlates with poorer prognosis and an aggressive phenotype. The effect of syndecan-1 expression on tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was determined in locally advanced breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: Semi-quantitative syndecan-1 immunohistochemistry was performed in pre-chemotherapy breast cancer biopsies of 37 patients undergoing high-dose neoadjuvant treatment with cyclophosphamide and epirubicin.

T1 breast cancer: identification of patients at low risk of axillary lymph node metastases.

Objective: The status of the axillary lymph nodes is one of the most important prognostic factors in patients with breast cancer. A panel of molecular markers of tumor aggressiveness in addition to conventional clinical and histopathologic features were analyzed in an attempt to identify a subgroup of patients with a low risk of axillary lymph node metastases.

Material And Methods: Data from 358 patients with T1 breast cancer who underwent level I/II axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) were investigated.