No abstract

TPS654^ Background: Resistance to endocrine therapy in patients (pts) with breast cancer remains a major clinical concern. Preclinical studies suggest that complete blockade of the hormone receptor (HR) combined with the inhibition of HER family members may be necessary to overcome resistance and improve clinical outcome in HR-positive and HER2-positive breast cancer (BC). The combination of pertuzumab (P) and trastuzumab (H) with docetaxel significantly improves patient outcome by blocking, more efficiently and completely, the HER signalling pathway. This benefit, however, may be smaller in HR-positive patients. PERTAIN is the first clinical trial to study whether a more potent blockade of the HER pathway with P and H in combination with endocrine therapy may restore or enhance endocrine sensitivity of HER2-positive BC and provide an effective treatment option in pts with HER2-positive and HR-positive MBC. Methods: PERTAIN is a multicenter, open-label, Phase II trial for post-menopausal women with HER2- and HR-positive BC, studying the efficacy of the combination of P plus H with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) as first-line therapy for MBC. Pts will be randomized 1:1 to Arm 1 (P: 840 mg loading dose, 420 mg q3w IV; H: 8 mg/kg loading dose, 6 mg/kg q3w IV; AI [anastrozole 1 mg or letrozole 2.5 mg qd po]) or Arm 2 (H + AI at same dose as Arm 1). Pts in either arm may also receive induction chemotherapy (docetaxel or paclitaxel) for up to 18 weeks at the investigator’s discretion. Study medication will be administered until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Pts must not have previously been treated with anti-HER2 agents except H and/or lapatinib in the (neo)adjuvant setting, and must have no CNS involvement or clinically significant cardiovascular disease. The primary endpoint is PFS, and secondary endpoints include overall survival, overall response rate, clinical benefit rate, duration of response, time to response, safety and tolerability, and quality of life. The study opened in January 2012 and will recruit 250 pts. Analysis of the primary endpoint will be performed after 165 PFS events using the Kaplan-Meier approach.

Today the use of adjuvant treatment of breast cancer is unquestionable in the management of this disease. Both chemotherapy and hormonal therapy have proved to be beneficial, not only with respect to the reduction of the risk of recurrence, but also with respect to mortality. However, in elderly patients, this therapeutic approach is occasionally the subject of controversy, due to the undervaluing of the tumoral disease with respect to the multiple pathology frequently present in these patients. This study analyses a retrospective series of 100 patients more than 70 years old with breast cancer who underwent radical surgery between 1990 and 1998, with an extension study without evidence of metastasis and a minimum follow-up of 2 years. As occurs in the population of this age, in our series 77% of the patients presented with concomitant disease under medical treatment, and although the majority received adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen, the principal cause of death in this series was the breast cancer that had been diagnosed.

No abstract

PECAM-1 is an adhesion molecule that plays an important role in the process of tumour disease dissemination since a function in transendothelial migration, angiogenesis and immune response has been shown for this membrane protein. Nevertheless the expression of PECAM-1 protein in solid tumours is a controversial matter and it has not been clarified so far. Thus, the aim of our study was to investigate PECAM-1 expression by immunohistochemistry in primary carci-nomas from colon, breast, bladder, ovary and kidney, and in their metastases. In addition an example of primary and metastatic melanoma was also investigated. We found that PECAM-1 is expressed in the metastases of all primary car-cinomas that express PECAM-1 (colorectal, breast and urothelial bladder). By the contrary metastases from primary carcinomas non-expressing PECAM-1 are also negative for expression. In conclusion, our findings support a possible role of this molecule in metastatic development of a subset of malignant human epithelial tumours.