Breast conservation surgery by round block mammoplasty.

Background: Round block mammoplasty (RBM) is a type of Oncoplastic procedure to facilitate breast conservation surgery for breast cancer.

Methods: Retrospective study of 270 patients who underwent this surgery. The surgical and oncological outcomes of RBM were studied.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy for risk-reducing mastectomy.

Risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) confers 90-95% decreased risk of breast cancer, and may reduce mortality, especially in high-risk groups such as BRCA carriers. Risk of occult disease in RRM specimen is ~5%. This demands axillary staging: sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is no longer possible, axillary clearance confers significant risks and may prove negative.

Association of oestrogen receptor beta 2 (ER beta 2/ER beta cx) with outcome of adjuvant endocrine treatment for primary breast cancer--a retrospective study.

Background: Oestrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) modulates ERalpha activity; wild type ERbeta (ERbeta1) and its splice variants may therefore impact on hormone responsiveness of breast cancer. ERbeta2/ERbetacx acts as a dominant negative inhibitor of ERalpha and expression of ERbeta2 mRNA has been proposed as a candidate marker for outcome in primary breast cancer following adjuvant endocrine therapy. We therefore now assess ERbeta2 protein by immunostaining and mRNA by quantitative RT-PCR in relation to treatment outcome.