Publications by authors named "Francoise Beltjens"

A patient with a PD-L1-negative, TMB-low, co-mutated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) experienced a multisite radiological progression at 3 months after initiation of chemoimmunotherapy as first-line treatment for metastatic disease. After the radiological progression, while she was not undergoing treatment, the patient had spontaneous lesions shrinkage and further achieved a prolonged complete response. Genomic and transcriptomic data collected at baseline and at the time of pseudoprogression allowed us to biologically characterize this rare response pattern.

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Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the added value of combining tumour blood flow (BF) and metabolism parameters, including texture features, with clinical parameters to predict, at baseline, the pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer (BC).

Methods: One hundred and twenty-eight BC patients underwent a F-FDG PET/CT before any treatment. Tumour BF and metabolism parameters were extracted from first-pass dynamic and delayed PET images, respectively.

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Background: With the development of some new antibody-drug conjugates, the HER2 classification of breast carcinomas now includes the HER2-low (H2L) category: IHC 1+, 2+ non-amplified by ISH, and double-equivocal carcinomas, mostly luminal, expressing hormone receptors (HR+).

Methods: We analyzed mutational status and transcriptomic activities of three HER2 effector pathways: PI3K-AKT, MAPK, and JAK-STAT, in association with clinicopathologic features, in 62 H2L carcinomas compared to 43 HER2-positive and 20 HER2-negative carcinomas, all HR+.

Results: H2L carcinomas had significantly lower histoprognostic grades and mitotic and Ki67 proliferation indexes than HER2-positive carcinomas.

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Article Synopsis
  • The CPS+EG scoring system helps figure out which breast cancer patients might need extra treatment after chemotherapy and was mainly studied in early breast cancer patients.
  • Researchers looked at how this scoring works in different types of breast cancer, especially focusing on HER2-low tumors, using data from 608 patients.
  • They found that for estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancers, the CPS+EG score was helpful in predicting outcomes, but it didn't work well for estrogen receptor negative (ER-) cancers.
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Background: The persistence of residual tumour after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in localised triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is known to have a negative prognostic value. However, different degrees of expression of some immunohistochemical markers may correlate with different prognoses.

Methods: The expression of biomarkers with a known prognostic value, i.

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Background: Breast cancers without HER2 amplification but still expressing this membrane protein constitute a new entity called HER2-low tumors. It is important to characterize them in terms of sensitivity to treatment and prognosis.

Patients And Methods: To investigate chemosensitivity and long-term prognosis of HER2-low early breast cancer (eBC), compared to HER2-0 tumors, we retrospectively retrieved clinicopathological characteristics, response to treatment, and survival data from 511 patients treated for eBC with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in a French cancer center between 2007 and 2018.

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Introduction: Intracystic papillary carcinoma is defined as papillary carcinoma located in a dilated or cystic duct. There is no consensus regarding the management of this lesion. The aim of our study is to evaluate the frequency of associated invasive lesions and the need to perform an axillary staging during surgery.

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Background: HER2 expression is often negative or low in primary breast cancers (BCs) but its changes with disease progression remain poorly known. We aimed to estimate them between primary and recurrent tumours, and identify predictive factors.

Methods: We compared the HER2 status, and clinical and pathological characteristics by its evolution category (stable or changed), between all primary BCs and matched recurrences registered in our database in 2000-2020 (n = 512).

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Purpose: To retrospectively assess the rate of pathologic complete response in the axilla according to breast cancer biologic subtypes, and to study the impact of nodal response on survival.

Methods: Inclusion criteria were all T-stage breast cancers with initial lymph node involvement, non-metastatic, treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery with axillary lymph node dissection, managed at the George-François Leclerc Cancer Center in Dijon, France, between 2000 and 2018.

Results: Among 437 patients included, the rate of complete nodal response rate varied according to tumor subtypes: 69.

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Introduction: Early-stage ovarian cancer represents 20 to 33% of all ovarian cancers and is thus quite rare in France, with around 1200 new cases per year. No study to date has convincingly demonstrated the utility of lymphadenectomy in early-stage ovarian cancer. We sought to evaluate the impact on overall survival of complete surgical staging in patients management for FIGO stage I and II ovarian cancer.

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Background: HER2-positive (HER2 +) invasive lobular breast cancer (ILC) is rare and poorly characterised. In particular, patient outcomes compared to those associated with HER2 + invasive ductal cancer (IDC) and HER2-negative (HER2 -) ILC, as well as the benefits of anti-HER2 therapy, are not well established.

Methods: We analysed the data from the Côte d'Or Registry of Breast and Gynaecological Cancers (France) for all patients diagnosed with early-stage HER2 + ILC (62 cases), HER2 + IDC (833 cases) and HER2 - ILC (685 cases) between 1998 and 2015 to compare overall and disease-free survival (OS and DFS) between these groups in correlation with anti-HER2 therapy.

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Molecular testing is extremely important in cancer care, starting as early as at diagnosis. In order to address the challenge of providing reliable results within the timeframe adapted to patient management and suitable to guide clinical decisions, a capture‑based next‑generation sequencing (NGS) panel focusing on ten genes known to harbor genetic variations which may be targeted by approved drugs in patients with cancer was designed and validated. Very favorable analytical performances were obtained for both solid and liquid biopsies.

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Purpose: In the ACOSOG Z0011 trial, patients with primary breast cancer and 1-2 tumor-involved sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) undergoing breast-conserving surgery had no oncological outcome benefit after axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), despite a relevant rate of non-SLN metastases of 27%. According to the St Gallen expert consensus, and NCCN and ASCO clinical guidelines, ALND may be avoided in patients who meet all ACOSOG Z0011 inclusion criteria. This recommendation can also be extended to patients undergoing mastectomy, with 1 or 2 positive SLNs and an indication for chest wall radiation, in whom axillary radiotherapy can be proposed as an alternative to completion ALND.

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Primary triple-negative invasive lobular breast carcinomas (TN-ILCs), which do not express hormone receptors and HER2 at diagnosis, are rare and poorly known. In this study, we analyzed the largest TN-ILC series ever reported in the literature, in comparison to phenotypically similar breast tumor subtypes: triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma (TN-IDC) and hormone receptor-positive invasive lobular carcinoma (HR + ILC). All primary TN-ILCs registered in our database between 2000 and 2018 (n = 38) were compared to tumors from control groups, matched by stage and Elston/Ellis grade, with regard to clinical, pathologic, and immunohistochemical characteristics.

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Determining the status of steroid hormone receptors [oestrogen (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR)] is a crucial part of the breast cancer workup. Thereby, breast cancers can be classified into four subtypes. However, the existence of ER-/PR+ tumours, often reported to be ill-classified due to technical errors, remains controversial.

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Objectives: To determine whether small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancers (NEPCa) emerging after anti-androgen treatments are different from the rarest cases diagnosed de novo, and to identify effective predictive markers.

Material And Methods: The expression of neuroendocrine markers, androgen receptor (AR) and androgen-regulated genes, as well as markers of aggressiveness, were analyzed by immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray containing samples of 30 sNEPCa, either pure or admixed with conventional PCa, and including 14 cases diagnosed de novo and 16 cases subsequent to prior androgen deprivation.

Results: Chromogranin A is a better marker of NE differentiation than synaptophysin in post-treatment NEPCa, with 94% and 44% of positive tumors, respectively, while both markers are equally expressed in de novo cases.

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Metaplastic breast carcinoma is a rare subtype of breast cancer. This subtype is mostly found in association with poorly differentiated ductal breast carcinomas and rarely with other breast carcinoma types. We report the case of a 69-year-old woman with an exceptional invasive lobular breast carcinoma associated with metaplastic squamous cell bone metastasis occurring 2 years after the initial breast cancer diagnosis.

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Management strategy of micro or macro metastatic sentinel lymph node(s) (SLNs) in breast cancer has dramatically changed over the past ten years and the publication of five randomized trials results: ACOSOG Z0011, IBCSG 23-01, and AATRM comparing axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) versus SLNs biopsy alone; and AMAROS and OTOASOR comparing ALND versus axillary radiotherapy. Despite methodological limitations of several of these trials, notably ACOSOG Z0011, the international recommendations (ASCO, NCCN) and the expert consensus of St Gallen do not recommend the performance of a complementary ALND in case of macro or micro metastatic SLN, if all ACOSOG Z0011 inclusion criteria are met. Moreover, in the context of a mastectomy, with one or two positive SLN and a wall irradiation indication, an axillary radiotherapy can be proposed as an alternative to ALND.

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Article Synopsis
  • Caspases, particularly cleaved caspase-3, have been found to have nonapoptotic functions that are not yet fully understood, beyond their known role in programmed cell death.
  • In this study, cleaved caspase-3 was shown to act as a transcription factor, binding directly to DNA and influencing gene expression related to angiogenesis, while also downregulating some proapoptotic genes in cancer cells.
  • The findings suggest that targeting cleaved caspase-3 could provide new opportunities for cancer therapies, as inhibiting it may enhance chemotherapy effectiveness and reduce tumor growth.
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Background: The incidence and incidence trends of breast cancer according to molecular subtype are unknown at a population level in France. The registry data enables this study and may give this information, that is crucial to describe and understand breast cancer epidemiology.

Methods: We estimated the incidence rates of breast cancer for each molecular subtype using data from three cancer registries in France for the period from 2007 to 2012.

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We aim to determine whether differences in survival exist between two populations of women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and to identify prognostic factors of survival after metastasis diagnosis. Data on women with MBC diagnosed between 2000 and 2011 were provided by the Côte d'Or Breast cancer registry. Survival rates and median overall survival (OS) after metastasis diagnosis were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method and prognostic factors were determined in a Cox proportional hazard model.

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Introduction: Atypical epithelial hyperplasia (AEH) of the breast is considered benign histological lesions with breast cancer risk. This review focuses on clinical signification and management of AEH that remains controversial.

Areas Covered: A review of published studies was performed using medline database.

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Tumor-infiltrating T and B lymphocytes could have the potential to affect cancer prognosis. The objective of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of tumor infiltration by CD8 and CD4 T cells, and B lymphocytes in patients with localized gastric cancer. In a retrospective cohort of 82 patients with localized gastric cancer and treated by surgery we quantitatively assessed by immunohistochemistry on surgical specimen, immune infiltrates of IL-17, CD8, Foxp3, Tbet T cells and CD20 B cells both in the tumor core and at the invasive margin via immunohistochemical analyses of surgical specimens.

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Advances in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies have improved the ability to detect potentially targetable mutations. However, the integration of NGS into clinical management in an individualized manner remains challenging. In this single-center observational study, we performed a dedicated NGS panel studying 41 cancer-related genes in 50 consecutive patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer between May 2012 and October 2014.

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This retrospective study evaluates the interest of CEA measurement for early detection of breast cancer recurrences. Among 804 patients with invasive breast cancer, we selected 97 patients without recurrence (WR) for 5 years or more, 32 with a local recurrence (LR) and 131 with at least one distant metastasis (DM). Elevated CEA and CA 15-3 levels (>3.

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