Published papers

Active clinical researches for breast cancer advance the therapeutic strategies remarkably, however, it seems to be more difficult to choose the appropriate treatment based on the evidence for each patient due to its diversification. Moreover, the striking achievements of various molecular targeting drugs established by basic researches make it complex, since the biological feature of tumor cell must be considered carefully for drug selection. To make it straight, the latest strategies for breast cancer treatment based on both basic and clinical evidences are summarized, especially about surgical and medical treatments of primary therapy for breast cancer.

Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is commonly performed using radioisotopes and/or blue dye. However, it is still undefined which reagent is more suitable for identifying sentinel lymph nodes (SLN). Patients and Methods: A consecutive series of 640 breast cancer patients who had undergone SLNB at the Keio University Hospital from 2001 to 2006 was analyzed. The SLN was identified by a combination of technetium-99m tin colloid and isosulfan blue dye. The correlation between clinicopathological factors and the distribution of radioisotopes and blue dye was analyzed. The single metastatic lymph node revealed by axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is the 'true SLN', and the distribution of radioisotopes and blue dye to the 'true SLN' was also analyzed. Results: Blue-dye- and radioisotope-positive SLN were identified in 79.6 and 94.7% of the patients, respectively. Taken together, SLN were identified in 625 patients (97.7%) by radioisotope and/or blue dye. No significant correlation was observed between clinicopathological features and the distribution of the reagents. ALND found 73 patients with single lymph node metastasis, and 73 'true SLN' were identified by blue dye in 65.7% (48/73), and by radioisotope in 95.9% (70/73) of the cases. Conclusion: These data suggest that radioisotopes are superior to blue dye in detecting SLN in breast cancer.

Background: Capecitabine (X) and docetaxel (T) have demonstrated a synergistic effect in preclinical models and a survival benefit in metastatic breast cancer. This study's purpose was to determine the efficacy of X and T followed by 5-fluorouracil/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide (FEC) in the preoperative setting. Patients and methods: Patients with stage II/III breast cancer received four cycles of XT (capecitabine 1650 mg/m2 on days 1-14 and docetaxel 60 mg/m2 on day 8 every 3 weeks), followed by four cycles of FEC (5-fluorouracil 500 mg/m2, epirubicin 90 mg/m2, and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks). Primary end points were the pathological complete response (pCR) rate and adverse drug reactions. Results: Seventy-four patients were enrolled and 71 patients were assessable for clinical and pathological responses. The overall response rate was 91.5%. The pCR rate was 14.1% (10 of 71). Grade 3/4 neutropenia was observed in 32.4% of patients. The most common grade 3/4 non-hematologic adverse event was hand-foot syndrome, observed in 11.3% of patients. With 29 months median follow-up, 2-year disease-free survival was estimated 85% for all patients. Conclusion: These data indicate that the sequential combination of XT followed by FEC is a well-tolerated, effective neoadjuvant treatment of stage II/III breast cancer.