• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2465-2472
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• 2015

Background: The Quality Audit (BQA) program of the Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand (NZ) collects data on early female breast cancer and its treatment. BQA data covered approximately half all early breast cancers diagnosed in NZ during roll-out of the BQA program in 1998-2010. Coverage increased progressively to about 80% by 2008. This is the biggest NZ breast cancer database outside the NZ Cancer Registry and it includes cancer and clinical management data not collected by the Registry. We used these BQA data to compare socio-demographic and cancer characteristics and survivals by ethnicity. Materials and Methods: BQA data for 1998-2010 diagnoses were linked to NZ death records using the National Health Index (NHI) for linking. Live cases were followed up to December $31^{st}$ 2010. Socio-demographic and invasive cancer characteristics and disease-specific survivals were compared by ethnicity. Results: Five-year survivals were 87% for Maori, 84% for Pacific, 91% for other NZ cases and 90% overall. This compared with the 86% survival reported for all female breast cases covered by the NZ Cancer Registry which also included more advanced stages. Patterns of survival by clinical risk factors accorded with patterns expected from the scientific literature. Compared with Other cases, Maori and Pacific women were younger, came from more deprived areas, and had larger cancers with more ductal and fewer lobular histology types. Their cancers were also less likely to have a triple negative phenotype. More of the Pacific women had vascular invasion. Maori women were more likely to reside in areas more remote from regional cancer centres, whereas Pacific women generally lived closer to these centres than Other NZ cases. Conclusions: NZ BQA data indicate previously unreported differences in breast cancer biology by ethnicity. Maori and Pacific women had reduced breast cancer survival compared with Other NZ women, after adjusting for socio-demographic and cancer characteristics. The potential contributions to survival differences of variations in service access, timeliness and quality of care, need to be examined, along with effects of comorbidity and biological factors.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 2005

Purpose: The aims of this study were to evaluate early breast cancer screening rate of occupational health nurses and to analyze factors affecting their behavior. Method: We reviewed and analyzed the structured questionnaires of III respondents from 230 participants in continuing education of occupational health nurses. Result: Breast self examination was performed in 72.1%, clinical breast examination was received in 30.6% and mammography was received in 40.5% significant factors affecting breast self examination were age and the age of menarche. significant factors affecting clinical breast examinations for breast cancers were age and the place of residence, and factors affecting mammography were age, monthly income, alcohol intake, the age of menarche, and attitude about early screening for breast cancers. Conclusion: Early breast cancer screening rate of occupational health nurses was higher than that of general population of women. But the rate of clinical breast examination and mammogaphy were lower of less than 50% of respondents. Therefore occupational health nurses who are responsible for health management of working women need more education for themselves to promote the motivation and to increase the rate of participation in early breast cancer screening.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2039-2044
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• 2014

This study was conducted in order to obtain a screening and early detection reference for children whose mothers had been diagnosed with cancer. Data for 276 mother-child pairs with malignant tumors were analyzed. The distribution of cancers in affected families was generally similar to that of the general Chinese population, and correspondingly breast cancer was the most common malignancy amongst daughters whose mother had cancer (32.7%). The most prevalent cancer amongst sons with affected mothers was gastric cancer, rather than lung cancer. Daughters were more likely to have the same kind of malignant tumor as their mother (P<0.05), and were more likely to develop breast cancer than any other malignant disease if their mother had a breast tumor (P<0.0001). Likewise, if the mother was diagnosed with breast or gynecological cancer, the daughter was more likely to be diagnosed with breast or gynecological cancer than any other cancer (P<0.01). Daughters and sons developed malignant diseases 11 and 6.5 years earlier than their mothers, respectively (P<0.0001).Women with a mother who suffered cancer should be screened for malignancy from 40 years of age especially for breast, lung, and gynecological cancers. For men with affected mothers, screening should start when they are 45 years old focusing particularly on lung and digestive system cancers.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.121-131
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• 2023

African breast cancer patients benefit less from classical pathology services owing to the complex molecular and clinicopathological nature of the disease, poor quality of laboratory supplies, and shortage of experts in the field. This review presents evidence and confirms the need for improving anatomic pathology services in Africa. Peer-reviewed international journal articles available in Medline, Scopus, PubMed, and Google scholars, describing the status of pathology services in Africa, were included. Besides the late presentation of patients, anatomic pathology laboratories are accountable for the escalated mortality of breast cancer patients in several parts of Africa. Conversely, molecular diversity and biological heterogeneity of breast cancers, which disprove the one-size-fits-all therapeutic approach, have been reported from different parts of the continent. Irrespective of the geographical background, the choice of therapeutic options and predicting disease outcome depends on the right identification of the molecular signature of the cancer type. In conclusion, we propose that upgrading and integrating anatomic pathology with molecular diagnostic pathology is essential in order to provide better diagnostic results that will profoundly impact curbing mortality from breast cancers.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2013

Purpose : To evaluate the MRI findings of breast cancer with BRCA mutation. Materials and Methods: We collected information of the breast cancer patients who underwent the test for BRCA gene mutation as well as preoperative breast MRI from January 2007 to December 2010. A total of 185 patients were enrolled; 33 of these patients had BRCA mutations and 152 patients did not. Among them, a total of 231 breast cancers were detected. Images of the 47 breast cancers with BRCA mutation and of the 184 breast cancers without mutations were evaluated to compare the morphologic and enhancement features on MRI. Results: With MR imaging, there were no significant difference in morphologic characteristic between two groups. However, enhancement pattern in the group with BRCA mutation were more likely to have persistent enhancement (p < 0.233), and LN metastasis was more common in breast cancers without BRCA mutation. Breast cancers with BRCA 2 mutation tend to show more persistent enhancement pattern than BRCA 1 mutation. Conclusion: In breast cancer patients with BRCA mutation, MRI didn't show significant difference in morphologic characteristics, however breast cancers with BRCA gene mutation carriers tend to have benign morphologic features on MRI, such as Type 1 kinetic curve enhancement.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.837-845
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• 2014

Background: Overweight and obesity are recognized as major drivers of cancers including breast cancer. Several cytokines, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-10 and lipocalin 2 (LCN2), as well as dysregulated cell cycle proteins are implicated in breast carcinogenesis. The nuclear, casein kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase substrate-1 (NUCKS-1), is a nuclear DNA-binding protein that has been implicated in several human cancers, including breast cancer. Objectives: The present study was conducted to evaluate NUCKS-1 mRNA expression in breast tissue from obese patients with and without breast cancer and lean controls. NUCKS-1 expression was correlated to cytokine profiles as prognostic and monitoring tools for breast cancer, providing a molecular basis for a causal link between obesity and risk. Materials and Methods: This study included 39 females with breast cancer (G III) that was furtherly subdivided into two subgroups according to cancer grading (G IIIa and G IIIb) and 10 control obese females (G II) in addition to 10 age-matched healthy lean controls (G I). NUCKS-1 expression was studied in breast tissue biopsies by means of real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Serum cytokine profiles were determined by immunoassay. Lipid profiles and glycemic status as well as anthropometric measures were also recorded for all participants. Results: IL-6, IL-12 and LCN2 were significantly higher in control obese and breast cancer group than their relevant lean controls (p<0.05), while NUCKS-1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in the breast cancer group compared to the other groups (p<0.05). Significant higher levels of IL-6, IL-12, and LCN2 as well as NUCKS-1 mRNA levels were reported in G IIIb than G IIIa, and positively correlated with obesity markers in all obese patients. Conclusions: Evaluation of cytokine levels as well as related gene expression may provide a new tool for understanding interactions for three axes of carcinogenesis, innate immunity, inflammation and cell cycling, and hope for new strategies of management.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2577-2581
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• 2014

Background: Triple negative breast cancer is associated with aggressive behavior and high risk of local and regional failure. Aggressive surgical intervention is considered suitable. This makes role of breast conserving therapy (BCT) debatable in these patients. The objective of this study was to compare outcome of BCT for triple negative versus non-triple negative breast cancer. Materials and Methods: Medical records of patients who underwent breast conserving therapy from 1999 to 2009 at Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and had complete receptor status information were extracted. Patients were divided into triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and non-TNBC. Patient characteristics, medical treatment modalities and adverse events were compared. Expected five year locoregional recurrence free, disease free and overall survival was calculated. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify independent predictors of outcome. Results: A total of 194 patients with TNBC and 443 with non-TNBC were compared. Significant difference was present for age at presentation (p<0.0001), family history (p=0.005), grade (p<0.0001) and use of hormonal therapy (p<0.0001). The number of locoregional failures, distant failures and mortalities were not significantly different. No significant difference was present in 5 year locoregional recurrence free (96% vs 92%, p=0.3), disease free (75% vs 74%, p=0.7) and overall survival (78% vs 83%, p=0.2). On multivariate analysis, tumor size, nodal involvement and hormonal treatment were independent predictors of negative events. Conclusions: Breast conserving therapy has comparable outcomes for triple negative and non-triple negative breast cancers.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.706-709
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• 2006

Cancer is one of the major causes of death; however, the survival rate can be increased if discovered at an early stage for timely treatment. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization of 2002, breast cancer was the most prevalent cancer for all cancers occurring in women worldwide, and it account for 16.8% of entire cancers inflicting Korean women today. In order to classify the type of breast cancer whether it is benign or malignant, this study was conducted with the use of the discriminant analysis and the decision tree of data mining with the breast cancer data disclosed on the web. The discriminant analysis is a statistical method to seek certain discriminant criteria and discriminant function to separate the population groups on the basis of observation values obtained from two or more population groups, and use the values obtained to allow the existing observation value to the population group thereto. The decision tree analyzes the record of data collected in the part to show it with the pattern existing in between them, namely, the combination of attribute for the characteristics of each class and make the classification model tree. Through this type of analysis, it may obtain the systematic information on the factors that cause the breast cancer in advance and prevent the risk of recurrence after the surgery.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 2011

Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) are synthetic molecules which bind to estrogen receptors (ER) and can modulate its transcriptional capabilities in different ways in diverse estrogen target tissues. Tamoxifen, the prototypical SERM, is extensively used for targeted therapy of ER positive breast cancers. Unfortunately, the use of tamoxifen is associated with acquired resistance and some undesirable side effects. This study investigated the availability of the conventional SERMs on the TAM-resistance breast cancer cells. SERMs showed more effectiveness in MCF-7 cells than tamoxifen resistant cells, except toremifene and ospemifene. Especially, toremifene was more efficacious in tamoxifen resistant cells than MCF-7. Ospemifene had similar cytotoxic activity on the two types of breast cancers. The other SERMs used in this experiment didn't inhibit efficiently the proliferation of tamoxifen resistant cells. These results support the possibility to usage of toremifene on tamoxifen resistant cancer. The effectiveness by toremifene on tamoxifen resistant cells might be different pathways from the apoptosis and the autophagy. Further study should be needed to elucidate the underlying mechanism of effect of toremifene on tamoxifen resistant cancer.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.473-481
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• 2020

Axl receptor tyrosine kinase has been implicated in cancer progression, invasion, and metastasis in various cancer types. Axl overexpression has been observed in many cancers, and selective inhibitors of Axl, including R428, may be promising therapeutic agents for several human cancers, such as breast, lung, and pancreatic cancers. Here, we examined the cell growth inhibition mediated by R428 and auranofin individually as well as in combination in the human breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 to identify new advanced combination treatments for human breast cancer. Our data showed that combination therapy with R428 and auranofin markedly inhibited cancer cell proliferation. Isobologram analyses of these cells indicated a clear synergism between R428 and auranofin with a combination index value of 0.73. The combination treatment promoted apoptosis as indicated by caspase 3 activation and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. Cancer cell migration was also significantly inhibited by this combination treatment. Moreover, we found that combination therapy significantly increased the expression level of Bax, a mitochondrial proapoptotic factor, but decreased that of the X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein. Furthermore, the suppression of cell viability and induction of Bax expression by the combination treatment were recovered by treatment with N-acetylcysteine. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that combined treatment with R428 and auranofin synergistically induced apoptosis in human breast cancer cells and may thus serve as a novel and valuable approach for cancer therapy.