Kwok Leung Cheung

..The Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is an analytical tool increasingly implemented in clinical practice. Breast cancer is primarily a disease of older people; however, most evidence-based research is aimed at younger patients...

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..However, evidence is scarce when this is extrapolated into clinical context. We report our experience to verify the clinical relevance of "withdrawal therapy"...

..The role of fulvestrant in the management of intestinal obstruction associated with lobular carcinoma has not been specifically described...

..These syndromes are usually treated by chemotherapy with or without immunosupression but they often respond poorly. There are no published reviews on response to endocrine treatment...

..Perforation of the gall bladder as a first presentation of breast cancer has not been reported...

..The clinical relevance of this has not been fully established...

..Ongoing and future studies will optimise treatment in established areas and will exploit its potential roles in preoperative use and chemoprevention...

..It would thus appear that further endocrine response can be induced in a reasonable proportion of patients after failing fulvestrant...

..5 months. Biochemical assessment by blood tumour markers is useful in patients with metastatic breast cancer unassessable for response to systemic therapy. These findings need to be confirmed in a larger patient series...

..We have clearly confirmed the high frequency of ER-positive tumours in elderly patients. Further work is underway to assess long-term outcome and clinical relevance...

..Serum concentrations of FA-2 appeared to be elevated in a number of disorders of bone metabolism. This paper is the first report of its role as a marker of bone metabolism in metastatic breast cancer...

..With the role of tamoxifen as the gold standard of first-line therapy being challenged by the third generation aromatase inhibitors, direct comparison of the latter with fulvestrant in the first-line setting may also be worthwhile...

..This article discusses the clinical assessment and investigation of breast lumps and possible treatments from an Asia Pacific perspective...

..Future studies should aim at incorporating new markers (e.g. serum c-erbB2, markers of bone metabolism) to tailor different clinical situations, and at exploiting the use of serum markers to direct systemic therapy...

..Within the limitations of being a non-randomised study, they should be considered in appropriate patients with hormone-sensitive ABC...

..We report our experience of primary endocrine therapy in ER+ LAPC...

..The addition of RT to surgery might constitute an imposition to such patients due to age-related factors. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of BCS without adjuvant RT in this group of patients...

..Further studies involving more patients and longer follow-up are indicated...

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..In this population, ERalpha+ breast cancer also appears to have a less aggressive biological profile favouring better hormone sensitivity...

..To assess the reliability of assessment of oestrogen receptor expression on needle core biopsy specimens of invasive carcinomas of the breast. Previous studies have mostly been small, with a range of agreement from 62% to 100%...

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..Our review highlights the superiority of aromatase inhibitors over tamoxifen in the neoadjuvant setting and even challenges chemotherapy with regard to response in selected group of patients...

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..Significant improvements in local disease control have been seen with recent advances in systemic chemotherapy regimens although thus far this has not shown in randomised trials to translate into overall survival benefits...

..003). Among the patients with positive tissue staining, sequential changes in serum c-erbB2 completely paralleled initial response...

..In most Western countries gamolenic acid is the first-line treatment for women with cyclical mastalgia...

..Further studies to elucidate other possible factors are warranted to refine the use of endocrine therapy, especially in the adjuvant setting when no indication of response is available...

..Thus, initial hormone therapy may be a reasonable option for managing locally advanced primary breast cancer, especially for oestrogen receptor-positive tumours...

..This study aimed to identify a profile of characteristics in elderly women with operable primary breast cancer and investigate the dynamics influencing the treatment decision-making process...

..This improved survival can be explained by better well-recognised prognostic features, such as metastatic site pattern, histological grade, ER status and disease-free interval...

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..Tamoxifen has a protective effect on bone metabolism in breast cancer; aromatase inhibitors deleterious and that of fulvestrant is unknown...

..Low-pressure suction drainage reduces seroma volume and duration of drainage leading to earlier drain removal. Preventive measures have to be tailored according to individual patient and operative factors...

..This finding may also prove useful in interpreting imaging in patients who have a history of breast cancer and undergo subsequent imaging because of new symptoms...

..A dedicated multidisciplinary-led clinic may provide a suitable platform for the assessment, review and management of this distinctive set of patients...

..The aim of this study was to determine whether bone scans (BS) can be avoided if pelvis was included in CT thorax and abdomen to detect bony metastases from breast cancer...