Publications by authors named "Helena Castillo"

Background/objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the clinical value of the sentinel lymph node ratio (SLN-R) in predicting additional positive lymph nodes during axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in breast cancer patients following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed at a single institution evaluating data from 1521 BC patients. Inclusion criteria comprised cT1/cT4, cN0/cN1 status with positive post-NAC axillary staging by SLN/TAD, respectively, and subsequent ALND.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer (BC) recurrence, defined as the reappearance of cancer in the ipsilateral breast after primary treatment, poses significant challenges in clinical management. Despite advances in treatment, recurrence rates persist, ranging from 0.6 to 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objective: De-escalation in breast cancer surgery has been a natural evolution since breast conserving surgery (BCS) was introduced in the early 1980s. From Halsted mastectomies to wide local excisions, we are facing nowadays the next trend in form of oncoplastic breast surgery. Oncoplastic breast surgery combines oncological principles with plastic surgery techniques to preserve the breast shape and appearance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There has been increasing interest in the study of new pathogenic mechanisms in endometriosis (END), including the coagulation/fibrinolysis system and its link with inflammation and tissue remodeling. It has been suggested that END patients, especially with deep-infiltrating (DE) forms, could present a hypercoagulable state revealing higher levels of proinflammatory and procoagulant markers, such as total circulating microparticles (cMPs) and cMP-TF (tissue factor), released by cells in response to damage, activation, or apoptosis. However, no previous study has assessed the effect of END hormonal treatments on cMP and cMP-TF levels.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adjuvant radiotherapy and hormonotherapy after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) have been shown to reduce the risk of local recurrence. To predict the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor relapse (IBTR) after BCS, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) developed a nomogram to analyze local recurrence (LR) risk in our cohort and to assess its external validation.

Methods: A historical cohort study using data from 296 patients treated for DCIS at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona was carried out.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on early-stage breast cancer patients without clinically positive lymph nodes (cN0) who undergo primary systemic treatment (PST) and later have positive sentinel lymph nodes (SLN+), leading to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) which can result in complications.
  • - Researchers analyzed clinic-pathological factors to find predictors of additional malignant nodes (non-SLN+) after ALND, identifying progesterone receptor levels and macrometastatic SLN+ as significant factors, ultimately developing the ALND-predict score for assessing these risks.
  • - Results indicated that only about 22% of patients had non-SLN+ after ALND, and the ALND-predict score demonstrated good accuracy,
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To protect germ cells from genomic instability, surveillance mechanisms ensure meiosis occurs properly. In mammals, spermatocytes that display recombination defects experience a so-called recombination-dependent arrest at the pachytene stage, which relies on the MRE11 complex-ATM-CHK2 pathway responding to unrepaired DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here, we asked if p53 family members-targets of ATM and CHK2-participate in this arrest.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF