Jia Jian Chen

A clinicopathological study of early-stage synchronous bilateral breast cancer: A retrospective evaluation and prospective validation of potential risk factors

Background The aim of the present study was to investigate potential risk factors for synchronous bilateral breast cancer sBBC). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed of patients diagnosed and treated with operable bilateral breast cancer (BBC) between June 2007 and December 2011. Risk factors for sBBC were evaluated in this cohort and further validated in a prospective observational validation analysis of patients between January 2012 and December 2012. Patients treated with operable unilateral breast cancer during the same period were used as a control group. Results A total of 11,247 patients with primary breast cancer underwent operations at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between June 2007 and December 2012. The incidence of sBBC was 1.6%. The age at diagnosis (HR = 2.4, 95% C.I.: 1.4–4.0, p = 0.001), presence of sclerosing adenosis (HR = 11.8, 95% C.I.: 5.3–26.3, p<0.001), lobular carcinoma component involvement (HR = 5.6, 95% C.I.: 2.6–12.1, p<0.001), and family history of first-degree relatives with breast cancer (HR = 2.0, 95% C.I.: 1.1–3.4, p<0.001) were independent risk factors for sBBC. A subsequent validation study failed to confirm the significance of family history. No significant difference on survival was found between patients with early-stage sBBC and control cases. Conclusions Patients with the presence of sclerosing in the affected breast, and lobular carcinoma component involvement may be at high risk for developing sBBC. This study supports the hypothesis that the host-carcinoma biological relationship, especially for the tumor microenvironment, played a critical role in the carcinogenesis of sBBC.

Surgical management of breast cancer in China: A 15-year single-center retrospective study of 18,502 patients

AbstractThe aim of the study was to review the surgical trends in breast cancer treatment in China over the past 15 years and to explore the possible factors related to the choice of surgical modality.The medical records of 18,502 patients with unilateral early stage breast cancer who underwent surgery from January 1999 to December 2013 at our institute were retrospectively reviewed. The utilization of different surgical modalities and the associated clinicopathological factors were analyzed. Furthermore, the prognostic role of surgical modality was also evaluated.The median patient age was 50.0 years. According to the pTNM staging system, 12.5% of the patients were classified as stage 0; 30.2% as stage I; 40.0% as stage II; and 17.3% as stage III. In total, 9.3% of the patients could not be staged. Overall, 67.1% of the breast cancer cases were estrogen receptor (ER) positive. The pattern of breast cancer surgery has changed tremendously over the past 15 years (P < 0.001). The pattern of mastectomy has shifted from radical mastectomy to modified radical mastectomy and simple mastectomy + sentinel lymph node biopsy. A total of 81.7% of the patients underwent mastectomy without immediate reconstruction, 15.2% underwent breast-conserving surgery (BCS), and 3.7% received immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy. Age, TNM staging, and pathological characteristics greatly affected the choice of surgical modality. The 5-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates for the mastectomy, BCS, and reconstruction groups were 87.6%, 93.2%, and 91.7%, respectively (P < 0.001); the RFS rate was likely affected by distant recurrence instead of loco-regional recurrence. We also identified improved RFS over time, stratified by surgical modality and tumor stage. Multivariate Cox-regression analysis revealed that time of treatment, tumor stage, tumor grade, LVI status, and ER status were independent prognostic factors for RFS in our cohort, whereas surgical modality was not.Mastectomy remains the most prevalent surgical modality used to manage early stage breast cancer in China, although the utilization of BCS has increased in the past decade. However, surgical management was not a prognostic factor for RFS. The selection of appropriate patients depended on the assessment of multiple clinicopathological factors, which is essential for making surgical decisions.

3-Dimensional shear wave elastography of breast lesions Added value of color patterns with emphasis on crater sign of coronal plane

AbstractColor patterns of 3-dimensional (3D) shear wave elastography (SWE) is a promising method in differentiating tumoral nodules recently. This study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of color patterns of 3D SWE in breast lesions, with special emphasis on coronal planes.A total of 198 consecutive women with 198 breast lesions (125 malignant and 73 benign) were included, who underwent conventional ultrasound (US), 3D B-mode, and 3D SWE before surgical excision. SWE color patterns of Views A (transverse), T (sagittal), and C (coronal) were determined. Sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated.Distribution of SWE color patterns was significantly different between malignant and benign lesions (P = 0.001). In malignant lesions, “Stiff Rim” was significantly more frequent in View C (crater sign, 60.8%) than in View A (51.2%, P = 0.013) and View T (54.1%, P = 0.035). AUC for combination of “Crater Sign” and conventional US was significantly higher than View A (0.929 vs 0.902, P = 0.004) and View T (0.929 vs 0.907, P = 0.009), and specificity significantly increased (90.4% vs 78.1%, P = 0.013) without significant change in sensitivity (85.6% vs 88.0%, P = 0.664) as compared with conventional US.In conclusion, combination of conventional US with 3D SWE color patterns significantly increased diagnostic accuracy, with “Crater Sign” in coronal plane of the highest value.

Surgical management for early-stage bilateral breast cancer patients in China

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the current surgical management strategy for bilateral breast cancer (BBC) patients and to assess the changes in this strategy in China. Methods This is a retrospective review of all patients with early-stage BBC who underwent surgical treatment at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between June 2007 and June 2014. Results A total of 15,337 patients with primary breast cancer were identified. Of these patients, 218 (1.5%) suffered from synchronous bilateral breast cancer (sBBC), and 296 (2.0%) suffered from metachronous bilateral breast cancer (mBBC). Patients with a lobular carcinoma component, those with estrogen receptor-positive cancer, and those with an accompanying sclerosing adenosis in the affected breast tended to develop BBC. The rates of bilateral mastectomy, breast conserving therapy, reconstruction, and combined surgeries were 86.2%, 6.4%, 3.7%, and 3.7%, respectively, for patients with sBBC and 81.1%, 4.4%, 3.0%, and 11.5%, respectively, for patients with mBBC. The interval between bilateral cancers, age at first diagnosis of breast cancer, histopathological type, and stage have significant impacts on the choice of surgery for patients with BBC. Conclusions Bilateral mastectomy was the dominant surgical management for patients with BBC in China, despite the increased application of breast reconstruction surgery observed in recent years. Bilateral prosthetic breast reconstruction was the ideal choice for patients with sBBC. Chinese surgeons should take responsibility for patient education and inform their patients about their surgical options.

Sclerosing adenosis: Ultrasonographic and mammographic findings and correlation with histopathology

The present study was conducted to evaluate the radiological findings, particularly the ultrasonographic (US) characteristics of sclerosing adenosis (SA), and their correlation with histopathological results. A retrospective review identified 191 patients with a total of 200 lesions histopathologically confirmed as SA following breast surgery between July 2009 and December 2012. Of the 191 patients, 145 (151 lesions) with SA as the major component were included for US and mammographic (MG) analysis. All 145 patients analyzed were female, with a mean age ± standard deviation of 46.8±7.8 years (range, 25–71 years). All 145 patients underwent US examination and the imaging findings included heterogeneously echogenic areas in 9.3% (14/151), masses in 51.7% (78/151), masses with calcifications in 13.9% (21/151), focal acoustic shadowing in 4.0% (6/151) and were negative in 21.2% (32/151) patients. Among the 119 lesions with visible abnormalities, 87.4% (104/119) were hypoechoic, 58.0% (69/119) were irregular in shape, 52.1% (62/119) had an ill-defined margin, calcifications were found in 17.6% (21/119) and 7.6% (9/119) were hypervascular, while none of the characteristics mentioned above were significantly correlated with histopathology. A total of 136 patients underwent MG at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, and the imaging findings included microcalcifications in 31.6% (43/136), masses in 23.5% (32/136), asymmetric focal density in 14.7% (20/136), focal architectural distortion in 22.8% (31/136), and were negative in 7.4% (10/136). The mass lesions were fewer on MG compared with US (23.5 vs. 65.6%, respectively). The area under the curve of US distinguishing between benign and malignant lesions was significantly larger compared with that of MG (0.547 vs. 0.497, respectively; P=0.036). In the 60 lesions that were overestimated by Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System US category, one or more characteristics of malignancy were found on US imaging. The most common finding of SA was masses with or without calcifications on US and microcalcifications on MG. The accuracy of US was limited, but higher compared with that of MG; however, SA mimicking the characteristics of malignancy may contribute to misdiagnosis with US.

Changing attitudes toward needle biopsies of breast cancer in Shanghai: experience and current status over the past 8 years.

Diagnostic patterns in breast cancer have greatly changed over the past few decades, and core needle biopsy (CNB) has become a reliable procedure for detecting breast cancer without invasive surgery. To estimate the changing diagnostic patterns of breast cancer in urban Shanghai, 11,947 women with breast lesions detected by preoperative needle biopsy between January 1995 and December 2012 were selected from the Shanghai Cancer Data base, which integrates information from approximately 50% of breast cancer patients in Shanghai. The CNB procedure uses an automated prone unit, biopsy gun, and 14-gauge needles under freehand or ultrasound guidance and was performed by experienced radiologists and surgeons specializing in needle biopsies. Diagnosis and classification for each patient were independently evaluated by pathologists. Over the indicated 8-year period, biopsy type consisted of 11,947 ultrasound-guided core needle biopsies (UCNBs), 2,015 ultrasound-guided vacuum-assisted biopsies (UVABs), and 654 stereotactic X-ray-guided vacuum-assisted biopsies (XVABs). For all the 11,947 women included in this study, image-guided needle biopsy was the initial diagnostic procedure. Approximately 81.0% of biopsied samples were histopathologically determined to be malignant lesions, 5.5% were determined to be high-risk lesions, and 13.5% were determined to be benign lesions. The number of patients choosing UCNB increased at the greatest rate, and UCNB has become a standard procedure for histodiagnosis because it is inexpensive, convenient, and accurate. The overall false-negative rate of CNB was 1.7%, and the specific false-negative rates for UCNB, UVAB, and XVAB, were 1.7%, 0%, and 0%, respectively. This study suggests that the use of preoperative needle biopsy as the initial breast cancer diagnostic procedure is acceptable in urban Shanghai. Preoperative needle biopsy is now a standard procedure in the Shanghai Cancer Center because it may reduce the number of surgeries needed to treat breast cancer.