BackgroundAxillary lymph node dissection (ALND) has been the standard treatment of breast cancer axillary staging in Indonesia. The limited facilities of radioisotope tracer and isosulfan or patent blue dye (PBD) have been the major obstacles to perform sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in our country. We studied the application of 1% methylene blue dye (MBD) alone for SNB to overcome the problem.MethodsThis prospective study enrolled 108 patients with suspicious malignant lesions or breast cancer stages I–III. SNB was performed using 2–5 cc of 1% MBD and proceeded with ALND. The histopathology results of sentinel nodes (SNs) were compared with axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) for diagnostic value assessments.ResultsThere were 96 patients with invasive carcinoma from July 2012 to September 2014 who were included in the final analysis. The median age was 50 (25–69) years, and the median pathological tumor size was 3 cm (1–10). Identification rate of SNs was 91.7%, and the median number of the identified SNs was 2 (1–8). Sentinel node metastasis was found in 53.4% cases and 89.4% of them were macrometastases. The negative predictive value (NPV) of SNs to predict axillary metastasis was 90% (95% CI, 81–99%). There were no anaphylactic reactions, but we found 2 cases with skin necrosis.ConclusionsThe application of 1% MBD as a single technique in breast cancer SNB has favorable identification rates and predictive values. It can be used for axillary staging, but nevertheless the technique should be applied with attention to the tumor size and grade to avoid false negative results.

Background The ESR1 gene encodes Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα), which plays a role in the tumourigenesis of breast cancer. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in intron 1 of this gene called ESR1 PvuII (rs2234693) has been reported to increase the risk of breast cancer. This study aimed to investigate the ESR1 PvuII polymorphism as a prognostic and predictive factor guiding the choice of therapy for advanced breast cancer. Methods This retrospective study was conducted in 104 advanced breast cancer patients at Dharmais Cancer Hospital from 2011 to 2018. The ESR1 PvuII polymorphism was analysed by Sanger sequencing of DNA from primary breast tumour samples. Results The percentages of patients with ESR1 PvuII genotypes TT, TC, and CC were 42.3, 39.4, and 18.3%, respectively. Looking at prognosis, patients with ESR1 PvuII TC + CC had shorter overall survival than those with the TT genotype [HR = 1.79; 95% CI 1.05–3.04; p = 0.032]. As a predictive marker, TC + CC was associated with shorter survival (p = 0.041), but TC + CC patients on primary hormonal therapy had a median overall survival longer than TC + CC patients on primary chemotherapy (1072 vs 599 days). Conclusion The ESR1 PvuII TC + CC genotypes confer poor prognosis in advanced breast cancer, but these genotypes could be regarded as a good predictor of the therapeutic effect of hormonal treatment.

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Background: There are no data of efficacy comparison between primary systemic therapy in stage 3B and 4 breast cancer patients in Indonesia. This study compared long term outcomes of breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (NAHT) and those treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT)Methods: This was a cohort study conducted from 2011 to 2017. A total of 122 patients with stage 3B and 4 breast cancer received NAHT (n = 62) or NACT (n = 60) within a 6 cycles for NACT and 6 months for NAHT were included. Patients were excluded if they had a mastectomy before treatment, were pregnant, had been given hormonal therapy or chemotherapy before, had a contra-indication of chemotherapy, had a contra-indication of salpingo-oophorectomy bilateral for premenopausal patients, and declined to enter this study. The primary outcome of this study was overall survival. The outcomes were analysed using Kaplan-Meier for survival analysis and cox proportional hazard regression to estimate the hazard ratio.Results: There was a statistically significant difference in overall survival (p = 0.038). Median overall survival for NAHT patients was 1265 days and for NACT patients was 654 days. The hazard ratio showed NACT patients had a higher risk than NAHT patients (1.7 95% CI 1.03 – 2.9). Pathological complete response rate was higher in the NACT group than in the NAHT group (3.3% vs. 0%).Conclusions: Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy was superior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in term of overall survival.