1,720,961 research outputs found

    Prognosis and treatment of micrometastatic breast cancer sentinel lymph node: a population-based study.

    No full text
    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Major concern of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy (SLNB) regards the prognosis of micrometastasis (Nmic) in SLN. The purpose of this study is to determine the adequate surgical treatment and prognosis of Nmic in a population-based series of breast cancer patients.METHODS: All non-metastatic breast cancer patients registered by the Modena Cancer Registry (MCR), from January 2000 to December 2008, were evaluated for SLNB. Information on patients' characteristics, treatment and follow-up was collected.RESULTS: Among 2,078 patients treated with SLNB, 28.5% (590) showed a positive SLN, subdivided in N0i+ 6.3% (31), Nmic 28.8% (176), N1 64.1% (378), and N2 0.8% (5). Of 176 Nmic, 80% (142) received an axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). Only three patients had ≥4 SLN involved. No axillary recurrence occurred in Nmic patients. The overall and disease-free survival rates were N0 99.2% and 97.7%, N0i+ 100% and 100%, Nmic 96% and 93.2%, N+ (N1 + N2) 96.1% and 92.4%, respectively (N0 vs. Nmic P < 0.001).CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that patients with Nmic have a similar prognosis to N+ (N1 + N2) patients, and a low risk of local recurrence, questioning the necessity of ALND for Nmic SLN. J. Surg. Oncol © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, In

    Distribution of second primari malignancies suggest a bidirectional effect between breast and endometrial cancer. A population-based study

    No full text
    INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of second primary tumors in patients with breast cancer (BC), with particular regard to bidirectional risk for endometrial cancer (EC). METHODS: A total of 7512 and 343 patients with first and second primary BC, respectively, were referenced to the expected number of cases calculated using the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) over the same period, to evaluate the observed and expected ratio between the groups. Data on tamoxifen use were also considered. RESULTS: A total of 499 women with primary BC developed a second tumor. The total SIR, that is, the ratio between observed second primary cancer among patients with BC and the expected primary cancers in the general population, was significantly higher (SIR = 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.34; P = 0.007), particularly for melanoma (2.25), EC (2.15), ovarian cancer (1.74), hematologic malignancies (1.36), and bilateral BC (1.25). A greater risk of BC after thyroid (2.22) and EC (1.62) was also observed. Furthermore, the risk of developing EC was higher in patients treated with tamoxifen (SIR = 2.50 vs 1.34). CONCLUSIONS: Bidirectional risk of endometrial cancer was not exclusively related to tamoxifen use

    A case of skeletal and bone marrow metastases from breast cancer treated with eribulin mesylate

    No full text
    Abstract AIM: We report our experience with eribulin mesylate in a pancytopenic heavily pretreated patient with multiple bone metastases and bone marrow infiltration from breast cancer. METHODS: Eribulin mesylate was given at 1.4 mg/m(2) on day 1 and 8 every 3 weeks for a total of 11 courses. RESULTS: After seven cycles, evaluation with a bone marrow biopsy showed a large decrease of neoplastic involvement with substitution of osteolitic lesions for the osteoaddensant type. No unexpected acute toxicity was observed. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this represents the first report of bone marrow metastases from breast cancer treated with eribulin mesylate that obtained an improvement of hematopoietic values with an acceptable profile of tolerability and good compliance for the subject

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

    Full text link
    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Reducing the burden of travel and environmental impact through decentralization of cancer care

    No full text
    Life expectancy, quality of life and satisfaction of oncologic patients highly depend on access to adequate specialized services, that consider their conditions in a holistic way. The present study aims to evaluate the introduction of oncology services in an outpatient setting in a mountain village in Northern Italy. The initiative is evaluated using the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental) as dimensions that are often overlooked by healthcare policy makers. Using micro data on 18,625 interventions, we estimate the number of kilometers saved by patients (reduction of ?travel burden? as indicator of social sustainability), the additional travel costs for the NHS (indicator of economic sustainability) and the implied reduction of CO2 emissions (indicator of environmental sustainability). Over the period July 2016?2021, the decentralized health center delivered 2,292 interventions saving 218,566 km for a corresponding value of ?131,140. The additional costs for the NHS was ?26,152. The reduction of CO2 emissions was 32.37 Tons (?5,989). Overall, the socio-economic benefit of reducing travel of care for the patients residing in this remote valley was ?110,976. This study adds original understanding of the benefits of decentralizing oncologic care and shows its operational feasibility conditions. Given the modest number of similar projects, it provides evidence to policy makers and, especially, managers who are faced with the challenge to implement the decentralization of specialized services

    Outcome evaluation in pre-trastuzumab era between different breast cancer phenotypes: a population-based study on italian women

    No full text
    AIMS AND BACKGROUND: Based on estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR) and Her2/neu (HER2) expression, four breast cancer subtypes have been distinguished: luminal A (ER and/or PgR/HER2-, Ki67 <14%), luminal B (ER and/or PgR/HER2-, Ki67 ≥14% or ER and/or PgR/HER2), triple-negative (ER-/PgR-/HER2-), and HER2 (ER-/PgR-/HER2). Our aim was to evaluate the prognosis of these phenotypes in the pre-trastuzumab era in a large cohort of Italian women. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We studied 2347 breast cancer patients, in stage I-II, registered by the Modena Cancer Registry from 1999 to 2006 in the Modena province, Italy. Overall survival, disease-free survival and second non-mammary tumors were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 1868 luminal A (79.6%), 195 luminal B (8.3%), 205 triple-negative (8.7%) and 79 HER2 (3.4%) patients were identified. A better prognosis was observed for luminal A than for luminal B, HER2 and triple-negative subtypes (5-year overall survival, 91% vs 89% vs 87% vs 86%, respectively, P <0.001). Disease-free survival for pT1a and pT1b tumors was worse in HER2 (82%) than in triple-negative (90%), luminal B (95%) and luminal A (97%) (P = 0.013). Finally, luminal B patients had a significantly higher rate of second non-mammary tumors than the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: In the pre-trastuzumab era, luminal A patients showed a better 5-year overall survival than luminal B, HER2 and triple-negative patients, but in terms of disease-free survival, HER2 subtype represented an unfavorable group over time, whereas the triple-negative group had an increased risk of relapse in the first 42 months and then decreased. Among each prognostic factor, ER 14% and HER2 overexpression are considered as risk factors, but only HER2 positivity seems to preserve the role over tim

    Variations on the Author

    Full text link
    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

    Full text link
    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

    Full text link
    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
    corecore