Circulating tumor cells as early predictors of metastatic spread in breast cancer patients with limited metastatic dissemination.

IntroductionTraditional factors currently used for prognostic stratification do not always predict adequately treatment response and disease evolution in advanced breast cancer patients. Therefore, the use of blood-based markers, such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), represents a promising complementary strategy for disease monitoring. In this retrospective study, we explored the role of CTC counts as predictors of disease evolution in breast cancer patients with limited metastatic dissemination.Methods492 advanced breast cancer patients who had a CTC count assessed by CellSearch prior to starting a new line of systemic therapy were eligible for this analysis. Using the threshold of 5 cells/7.5 mL of blood, pretreatment CTC counts were correlated in the overall population with metastatic site distribution, evaluated at baseline and at the time of treatment failure, using the Fisher¿s Exact test. Time to visceral progression, as well as, time to the development of new metastatic lesions and sites were estimated in patients with non-visceral metastases and with single-site metastatic disease, respectively, by the Kaplan-Meier method. Survival times were compared among groups according to pretreatment CTC count by log-Rank test.ResultsIn the overall population, pretreatment CTCs¿¿¿5 were associated with increased baseline number of metastatic sites, compared with CTCs

The Normal Risk Ovarian Screening Study (NROSS): Twenty-one year update

5522 Background: The Normal Risk Ovarian Screening Study (NROSS) tested a two-stage screening strategy in post-menopausal women at conventional hereditary risk where significantly rising CA125 prompted transvaginal sonography (TVS) and abnormal TVS prompted surgery to detect ovarian cancer. Methods: A total of 7,856 healthy postmenopausal women were screened annually for a total of 50,596 women-years in a single arm study ( NCT00539162 ). Serum CA125 was analyzed with the Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm (ROCA) each year. If risk was normal ( 1:500), TVS was undertaken immediately and if risk was intermediate, CA125 was repeated in 3 months, risk recalculated, and the participant re-triaged. An average of 2% of participants were referred to TVS annually. Results: Thirty-four patients were referred for operations detecting 15 ovarian cancers and 2 borderline tumors with 12 in early stage (I-II). In addition, 7 endometrial cancers were detected with 6 in early stage. Thus, the positive predictive value (PPV) of the NROSS trial was 50% (17/34) for detecting ovarian cancer and 74% (25/34) for any cancer, far exceeding the minimum acceptable study endpoint of 10% PPV. As 4 ovarian cancers and 2 borderline tumors were diagnosed within a year of each participant’s last normal risk, the sensitivity for detecting ovarian and borderline cancer was 74% (17/23) and 70% of ROCA-detected cases (12/17) were in stage I-II. NROSS screening reduced incidence of late stage (III-IV) disease by 34% compared to the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) control arm and by 30% compared to US SEER values. Results of our NROSS trial contrast dramatically with those of the recently reported UKCTOCS that showed only a modest 14% early-stage shift, underlying a lack of reduction in mortality. Across multiple randomized trials of mammography, those trials that demonstrated at least a 20% late-stage incidence reduction had a significant mortality reduction, whereas those with less of a stage shift did not. Conclusions: An elevated ROCA, characterized by a significantly rising CA125, prompted referral of 2% of participants to TVS each year and required only 2 operations to detect each case of ovarian cancer, indicating that CA125 used in this way is adequately specific for effective screening. While the NROSS trial was not powered to detect reduced mortality, the high specificity, PPV and marked stage shift support further development of this strategy. Clinical trial information: NCT00539162