Response rate to neoadjuvant chemotherapy measured on imaging predicts early recurrence and death in breast cancer patients with lymph node involvements.

Background: The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is effective as postoperative adjuvant therapy, permits more lumpectomies, and can be used to study breast cancer biology. Although pathological response is the strongest prognostic factor, response rates vary according to various parameters, such as dissociation between breast and axillary node responses.

Purpose: To clarify the correlation of response rates between breast tumors and metastasized lymph nodes and to identify the clinical significance; response rates measured on imaging were evaluated among breast cancer patients with axillary lymph node involvement.

Identification of vitronectin as a novel serum marker for early breast cancer detection using a new proteomic approach.

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy in women. However, no useful serum markers with high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of early breast cancer have been identified. The search for biological markers of early breast cancer is of continual interest in experimental and clinical breast cancer research.

Clinical significance of axillary microresiduals after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with cytologically proven metastases.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has been widely accepted for advanced breast cancer patients, and pathological complete remission (pCR) was revealed to be an important prognostic factor. The pCR status of cytologically proven axillary metastases (ALN-pCR) offers a more powerful prognostic predictor than pCR of the main tumor. This study evaluated the clinical significance of residual micrometastases and discusses screening methods after NAC in patients with cytologically proven axillary metastases.

Ectopic breast tissue in axillary lymph node.

Benign epithelial inclusions are uncommonly found in lymph nodes, and ectopic breast tissue in axillary lymph nodes is particularly uncommon. The patient is a 48-year-old woman who had an adenoma of the nipple removed 10 years previously. A swollen lymph node with amorphous calcifications in a clustered distribution on mammogram was found in the left axilla.

Angiosarcoma arising in the breast following breast-conserving surgery with radiation for breast carcinoma.

We report a case of angiosarcoma arising in the breast following breast-conserving surgery with radiation therapy for breast carcinoma. The patient, a 49-year-old postmenopausal woman, had undergone breast-conserving surgery for invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast (pT2 pN0 M0 Stage IIA). Adjuvant radiotherapy (50 Gy with a booster dose to the tumor bed of 10 Gy) was then performed for the residual breast tissue and the patient was treated with hormone therapy (tamoxifen, 20 mg daily) for 5 years.

Dynamic enhanced MRI predicts chemosensitivity in breast cancer patients.

Background: Primary chemotherapy for breast cancer is effective as postoperative adjuvant therapy. However, one of the critical disadvantages was a treatment delay for patients with progressive disease. The present study attempts to clarify quantitative parameters on MRI which can be used to predict the sensitivity to treatment in breast cancer patients.