Marco Colleoni

..Tailored neoadjuvant treatments should be considered in patients with ER-positive tumors. Issues focusing on safety, quality of life and patient preference should be routinely discussed...

..The identification of special types of breast cancer might be of value in assessing prognosis and predicting response to therapy...

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..To test this hypothesis we evaluated the responsiveness to preoperative chemotherapy in patients with ER and progesterone receptors (PgR)-absent tumors...

..To identify patient populations at high risk for bone metastases at any time after diagnosis of operable breast cancer, because these patients are potential beneficiaries of treatment with bisphosphonates...

..The value of adjuvant tamoxifen after chemotherapy for premenopausal women with breast cancer has not been adequately assessed...

..We previously demonstrated efficacy and impact on serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for metronomic cyclophosphamide (C) and methotrexate (M) in patients with breast cancer. New metronomic schedules were investigated...

..We investigated tumor- and patient-related features that might influence the response to perioperative chemotherapy (PeCT) compared with no adjuvant therapy for patients with node-negative breast cancer...

..Alternative mechanisms of efficacy have been ascribed to several common anticancer agents, including cyclophosphamide (CTX), methotrexate (MTX), anthracyclines and taxanes, postulating an antiangiogenic activity...

..Breast cancer rarely occurs in young women. Our knowledge about disease presentation, prognosis and treatment effects are largely dependent upon older series...

..44] for overall survival) [interaction p values=0.0001 for disease-free survival and 0.0019 for overall survival]. Our findings suggest that for women with ER-absent or ER-low tumours, reduction in chemotherapy dose should be avoided...

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..Controversy persists about whether chemotherapy benefits all breast cancer patients...

..For medial tumors, axillary lymph node staging may not accurately reflect the metastatic potential of the disease...

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..While data exist to clearly correlate small tumor size to better prognosis, the fact that very small breast cancers may express biological markers of dire prognosis leads many to ignore small tumor size during treatment decision-making...

..There is limited knowledge about prognosis, and treatment effects in young women with node-negative disease...

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..The purpose of this research was to identify factors predicting response to preoperative chemotherapy...

..Examination of patterns of relapse and treatment response within subpopulations in multiple randomized trials is also mandatory to make progress and reach consensus on how to treat individual patients with special types of breast cancer...

..We investigated whether letrozole monotherapy prolonged overall survival (OS) compared with tamoxifen monotherapy...

..Tailored endocrine treatments should be considered in patients with endocrine-responsive tumors classified as pT1 pN0. Issues focusing on safety, quality of life and subjective side effects should be routinely discussed...

..Tools able to predict pathological complete response (pCR) to preoperative chemotherapy might improve treatment outcome...

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..We review recent developments in the knowledge of established predictive factors in the neo-adjuvant setting...

..The role of adjuvant dose-intensive chemotherapy and its efficacy according to baseline features has not yet been established...

..We aimed to predict disease-free survival (DFS) in patients who failed to achieve a pathologic complete remission (pCR) after preoperative chemotherapy (PC)...

..4, 95% CI 3.5-11.6, for DFS; HR 3.6 95% CI 2.4-5.6 for OS). Response and outcome after PCT are correlated with the degree of expression of steroid hormone receptors. Studies on tailored preoperative therapies are needed...

..To identify the role of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PgR), epidermal growth factor 1 (HER1), and HER2 receptors in predicting response to preoperative chemotherapy...

..4%), focal (368, 14.1%), moderate (51, 2.0%) and extensive (170, 6.5%)...

..The International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) conducted two complementary randomized trials to assess whether a treatment-free gap during adjuvant chemotherapy influenced outcome...

..91; 95% CI 1.69-20.7; p = 0.005), in particular if HER2/neu overexpression was detected (HR: 16.5; 95% CI 4.24-64.5; p < 0.0001). New multimodality and targeted strategies should be explored in endocrine nonresponsive breast cancer...

..A non-negligible rate of progressive disease was observed, suggesting careful monitoring of the patients. Further studies evaluating the potential benefit of bevacizumab in neoadjuvant treatment need to be tested...

..To develop a Risk Score (RS) to predict distant recurrence among premenopausal women with node-negative endocrine-responsive early breast cancer...

..Perioperative chemotherapy failed to show an increase in the pathological complete remission rate. A biological effect on Ki-67 expression was demonstrated...

..No specific treatment guidelines are available for triple-negative breast cancers, defined by a lack of expression of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PgR), and HER2 receptors...

..EGFR immunoreactivity significantly correlates with worse prognosis in patients with triple-negative IDC, supporting further studies on the correlation between the degree of EGFR expression and outcome of triple negative breast cancer...

..We therefore tested the activity of the combination of Trastuzumab with metronomic, low dose chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide (CTX) and methotrexate (MTX) in metastatic breast cancer (MBC)...

..To explore the activity of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) as neoadjuvant therapy of breast cancer...

..We analyzed the role of Topo II gene status in the prediction of pathological complete remission (pCR) after primary anthracycline-based chemotherapy in non- endocrine responsive breast cancers overexpressing Her2/neu...

..A substantial rate of relapse was observed for patients with large tumors and with clinical nodal involvement at baseline. Further improvement in adjuvant treatment might be warranted...

..Ancillary analyses of the IBCSG 23-01 and AMAROS trials, still in follow-up, may be able to do this...

..Endocrine therapy administered together with new intravenous, containing regimens should be explored in the preoperative treatment of endocrine responsive breast cancer...

..The prognostic role of serum levels of molecular biomarkers during the perioperative period in patients with early breast cancer is not clear...

..The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic and predictive role of serum HER-2/neu and serum EGFR in breast cancer patients treated with low-dose chemotherapy...

..Synchronous bilateral invasive breast carcinoma (SBIBC) ranged in incidence from 0.3% to as high as 12%...

..To evaluate the role of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin with low-dose metronomic cyclophosphamide as primary systemic treatment in locally advanced breast cancer...

..There is an urgent need for the identification of commonly assessable predictive factors in the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer...

..Nevertheless, a subset of patients might be at high risk of developing overt axillary disease and efforts should be made to identify such patients by ancillary analyses of the results of ongoing or recently published clinical trials...

..Thus, Ki-67 labeling index was an independent prognostic factor but was not predictive of better response to adjuvant chemotherapy in these studies...

..The development of more effective therapies for very young women with breast cancer requires tailored treatment investigations and research focused on issues specific to these patients...

..Metronomic chemotherapy has shown efficacy in patients with metastatic breast cancer. When used in association with targeted antiangiogenic drugs, it was more active than metronomic therapy alone in preclinical and clinical studies...

..Given its low cardiotoxicity, the combination of PLD and trastuzumab appears most attractive in the treatment of human epidermal factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer...

..The analysis of the results suggests that the metronomic chemotherapy combined with bevacizumab and erlotinib is effective and well tolerated...

..The outcome of OBC patients is comparable with that of matched patients with small sized breast cancer. High risk of relapse and death was observed in OBC patients with triple negative tumours and extensive nodal involvement...

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..The aim of the present study was to ascertain the predictive value of p63 immunoreactivity in patients treated preoperatively with regimens including cisplatin and/or anthracyclines...

..Combined trastuzumab and intravenous vinorelbine yielded high clinical activity as preoperative treatment in patients (pts) with HER 2/neu positive breast cancer...

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..This review focuses on the effects of timing of chemotherapy-radiotherapy and risks of relapse, in terms of locoregional and distant recurrence in patients with operable breast cancer...

..We performed a retrospective review to assess the potential of performing breast conservative surgery and intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons (ELIOT), in these patients...

..Surgical treatment of breast cancer in very young patients (<35 years) is still a matter of debate, since age is a predictive factor of local recurrence after breast conservation...

..Further studies combining chemotherapy and endocrine agents are warranted in patients with hormone receptor-positive tumors...

..The outcome of ILC significantly correlated with histological and immunohistochemically defined molecular subtypes. New tailored strategies should be explored in these subgroups of patients with poor outcome...

..Metronomic chemotherapy can induce prolonged clinical benefit in metastatic breast cancer, supporting its role as an additional therapeutic tool in the treatment of patients with metastatic breast carcinoma...

..Classical lobular histology is not an independent factor in the prognosis of early breast cancer...

..To assess the prognostic role of HER2 overexpression/amplification in patients with node-negative, pT1a-b breast cancers...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of low-dose aspirin for the prevention of VTE...

..This study was designed to present the 5-year results of patients with multicentric breast cancer who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in a single institution...

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..Our results suggest that FISH testing should be considered for tumours with 50% positive stained cells and that polysomy 17 without amplification is not associated with poor prognostic features...

..As the clinical indications to SNB are progressively extending to encompass most breast cancer patients with non-metastatic disease who were previously excluded, great effort should be made to avoid 'unnecessary ALNDs'...

..Its extracellular domain (HER2 ECD) can be shed into the circulation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of HER2 ECD in patients with advanced breast cancer...

..005). Preclinical models indicated that the source of apoptotic CECs was most likely the tumor vasculature. CEC kinetics and viability are very promising as predictors of clinical response in patients undergoing metronomic chemotherapy...

..Other side effects have included diarrhea and thrombocytopenia. CONCLUSIONS: The schedule has demonstrated moderate activity in heavily pretreated breast cancer, with mucositis as the dose-limiting toxicity...

..Therefore, adherence to the 'classical' dose and schedule is recommended when CMF is used in adjuvant therapy...

..These drugs have since been extensively used with or without endocrine therapies and/or other cytotoxic agents. Although doses and schedules have varied widely, the combination of these three drugs is generically referred to as CMF...

..This review focuses on letrozole, a third generation aromatase inhibitor, encompassing pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic aspects as well as its clinical efficacy and safety...

..Toxicity consisted of mucositis, diarrhea and neutropenia. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with metastatic pancreatic carcinoma do not benefit from this treatment schedule...

..Research with tailored approaches on alternative imaging for early detection of breast cancer in high-risk women and on treatments offered according to proper criteria of responsiveness to therapies is warranted...

..CONCLUSIONS: A large interpatient pharmacokinetic variability was observed without any significant correlation with the clinical parameters studied...

..Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article...

..We analyzed risk factors and treatment outcome in a large series of women treated at one institution...

..This meeting report summarizes the highlights of the 12 sessions...

..Previous mastectomy is unanimously considered to represent an absolute technical contraindication to sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB)...

..We therefore evaluated the efficacy of an ITC regimen for patients presenting with carcinomatous meningitis from breast cancer...

..The aim of the study was to evaluate the relation between biologic features at first diagnosis of breast carcinoma and treatment choice for postmenopausal women > or = 50 years to optimize treatment in the elderly...

..g. endocrine primary therapy) might be more useful...

..To evaluate the prognostic and predictive value of Ki-67 labeling index (LI) in a trial comparing letrozole (Let) with tamoxifen (Tam) as adjuvant therapy in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity and safety of giving HIAC through a percutaneous catheter in pre-treated patients...

..Treatment recommendations for systemic therapy should not take into account the presence of a single micrometastatic lymph node identified during complete serial sectioning of sentinel node(s)...

..Peritumoral vascular invasion (PVI) may assist in assigning optimal adjuvant systemic therapy for women with early breast cancer...

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..FA should be associated with fluoropyrimidine as first-line therapy together with other biochemical modulators. Further rescue therapies need to be developed...

..The results of treatment strategies for carcinoma of an unknown primary location have been discouraging. Currently, no chemotherapeutic approach can be considered standard...

..No studies exist on the role of these factors in male breast carcinoma...

..In conclusion, bevacizumab is feasible and active in association with primary chemoendocrine therapy for ER-positive tumours in terms of proliferation inhibition, clinical response and antiangiogenic activity...