Clinicopathologic features, treatment, and prognosis of pregnancy-associated breast cancer

PurposeTo identify the clinicopathological features, treatment, and prognosis of patients with breast cancer, who were diagnosed during and after pregnancy.MethodsWe searched for patients with pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) using the big data query and analysis system of Peking Union Medical College Hospital from between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2021, and matched each patient with two non-PABC patients by age at diagnosis, year at diagnosis, and tumor stage. The clinicopathologic features, treatment, and outcomes of breast cancer during pregnancy (BC-P) and breast cancer during the first-year post-partum (BC-PP) were examined retrospectively in two case-control studies.ResultsEighteen BC-P cases, 36 controls for BC-P cases, 62 BC-PP cases, and 124 controls for BC-PP cases were enrolled in our study. The expression of HER-2 and Ki-67 was higher in BC-PP cases than in its controls (P=0.01, 0.018, respectively). Patients with BC-PP were more likely to choose mastectomy than breast-conserving surgery (P=0.001). There were no significant differences in event-free survival (EFS) between patients with BC-P and BC-PP and their controls.ConclusionBC-P and BC-PP patients displayed adverse clinicopathological features in our population. However, when matched by age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, and tumor stage, BC-P and BC-PP patients did not show inferior outcomes to controls, probably due to aggressive multimodality therapy

Expression of neuroendocrine markers predicts increased survival in triple-negative breast cancer patients

BackgroundThe significance of neuroendocrine (NE) markers in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients has not been investigated. This study aims to clarify the incidence and prognostic significance of NE marker expression in TNBC, determine its association with other clinicopathological parameters, and further explore the pathological features and potential treatment options for TNBC patients expressing NE markers.MethodsClinicopathological data were collected from 396 TNBC patients undergoing radical breast cancer surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2002 to December 2014, with a final follow-up in July 2019. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining was performed for NE markers including chromogranin A (CgA) and synaptophysin (Syn). For TNBC patients with positive NE marker expression, IHC staining was then performed for alpha-thalassemia/mental retardation X-linked (ATRX), O(6)-methylguanine-methyltransferase (MGMT), somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2), and programmed death receptor-ligand 1 (PD-L1). The chi-square or Fisher exact test was used to evaluate the correlations between NE marker expression and other parameters. Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier (K-M) method to assess the prognostic significance of NE markers in TNBC.ResultsNE marker-positive staining was observed in 7.6% (30/396) of all TNBC cases. Only 0.5% (2/396) cases had ≥ 90% neoplastic cells expressing NE markers. Positive NE marker expression was associated with negative basal-like marker expression. K-M survival analysis showed that the NE marker-positive TNBC patients had higher disease-free survival (DFS) rates than the NE marker-negative patients at the same stage. Among the 30 NE marker-positive TNBC cases, 13.3% and 26.7% showed negative IHC staining for ATRX and MGMT, respectively, while 13.3% had a 3+ score for SSTR2 IHC staining. For PD-L1 IHC staining, 13.3% of the 30 TNBC cases were higher than 10 scores in Combined Positive Score (CPS), and 10.0% were higher than 10% in Tumor Cell Proportion Score (TPS).ConclusionThere was a small proportion of TNBC patients expressing NE markers. TNBC patients with positive NE marker expression had a better prognosis than the negative group at the same stage. TNBC cases with positive NE marker expression may potentially benefit from immunotherapy or somatostatin analogue treatment

Breast-conserving surgery without axillary surgery and radiation versus mastectomy plus axillary dissection in elderly breast cancer patients: A retrospective study

BackgroundThe high relative mortality rate in elderly breast cancer patients is most likely the result of comorbidities rather than the tumor load. Foregoing axillary lymph node dissection or omitting radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) does not affect the prognosis of elderly breast cancer patients. We sought to assess the safety of breast-conserving surgery without axillary lymph node dissection as well as breast and axillary radiotherapy (BCSNR) in elderly patients with early-stage breast cancer.MethodsWe retrospectively included 541 consecutive breast cancer patients aged over 70 years with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes in one clinical center. Of these patients, 181 underwent mastectomy plus axillary lymph node dissection (MALND) with negative axillary cleaning and 360 underwent BCSNR.ResultsAfter a median follow-up of 5 years, there was no significant difference between the BCSNR and MALND groups in either distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) (p=0.990) or breast cancer-specific survival (p=0.076). Ipsilateral axillary disease was found in 11 (3.1%) patients in the BCSNR group and 3 (1.7%) patients in the MALND group; this difference was not significant (p=0.334). We did not observe a significant difference in distant recurrence between the groups (p=0.574), with 25 (6.9%) patients in the BCSNR group experiencing distant recurrence compared to 15 (8.3%) patients in the MALND group. Our findings did show a significant difference in ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence (IBTR), with 31 (8.6%) patients in the BCSNR group experiencing IBTR compared to only 2 (1.1%) patients in the MALND group (p=0.003).ConclusionBCSNR is a safe treatment option for elderly breast cancer patients with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes

Prediction-based delay optimization data collection algorithm for underwater acoustic sensor networks

The past years have seen a rapid development of autonomous underwater vehicle-aided (AUV-aided) data-gathering schemes in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). The use of AUVs efficiently reduces energy consumption of sensor nodes. However, all AUV-aided solutions face severe problems in data collection delay, especially in a large-scale network. In this paper, to reduce data collection delay, we propose a prediction-based delay optimization data collection algorithm (PDO-DC). On the contrary to the traditional delay optimization algorithms, Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR) is utilized via cluster member nodes to obtain the corresponding prediction models. Then, the AUV can obtain all cluster data by traversing less cluster head nodes, which can effectively reduce the collection delay of the AUV. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is both feasible and effective. - 2019 IEEE.Manuscript received December 10, 2018; revised March 19, 2019; accepted April 27, 2019. Date of publication May 2, 2019; date of current version July 16, 2019. The work was supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program, 2018YFC0407900 and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61572172, 61602152, and 61872124, and in part by the Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Acoustics under Grant SKLA201901. The review of this paper was coordinated by Dr. P. Lin. (Corresponding author: Guangjie Han.) G. Han and S. Shen are with the Department of Information and Communication Systems, Hohai University, Changzhou 213022, China (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]).Scopu

A Stratification-Based Data Collection Scheme in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Internet of Things (IoT) is helping to create a smart world by connecting sensors in a seamless fashion. With the forthcoming fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems, IoT is becoming increasingly important since 5G will be an important enabler for the IoT. Sensor networks for IoT are increasingly used in diverse areas, e.g., in situational and location awareness, leading to proliferation of sensors at the edge of physical world. There exist several variable step-size strategies in literature to improve the performance of diffusion-based Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm for estimation in wireless sensor networks. However, a major drawback is the complexity in the theoretical analysis of the resultant algorithms. Researchers use several assumptions to find closed-form analytical solutions. This work presents a unified analytical framework for distributed variable step-size LMS algorithms. This analysis is then extended to the case of diffusion based wireless sensor networks for estimating a compressible system and steady state analysis is carried out. The approach is applied to several variable step-size strategies for compressible systems. Theoretical and simulation results are presented and compared with the existing algorithms to show the superiority of proposed work

The Impact of Dynamic Adaptive Teaching Model on Surgical Education

Objective  To investigate the impact of dynamic adaptive teaching model on surgical education.  Methods  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we adopted dynamic adaptive teaching model in the Department of Breast Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, which divided the whole curriculum into several individual modules and recombined different modules to accommodate to student's levels and schedules. Meanwhile, adaptive strategy also increased the proportion of online teaching and fully utilized electronic medical resources. The present study included quantitative teaching score (QTS) recorded from January 2020 to June 2020, and used the corresponding data from 2019 as control. The main endpoint was to explore the impact of dynamic adaptive teaching model on overall QTS and its interaction effect with trainer's experience and student category.  Results  Totally, 20 trainers and 181 trainees were enrolled in the present study. With implementation of dynamic adaptive strategy, the overall QTS decreased dramatically (1.76±0.84 vs. 4.91±1.15, t=4.85, P=0.005). The impact was consistent irrespective of trainers' experience (high experience trainers: 0.85±0.40 vs. 2.12±0.44, t=4.98, P=0.004; medium experience trainers: 0.85±0.29 vs. 2.06±0.53, t=4.51, P=0.006; and low experience trainers: 0.10±0.16 vs. 0.44±0.22, t=2.62, P=0.047). For resident (including graduate) and undergraduate student teaching, both QTS was lower with dynamic strategy (residents: 0.18±0.34 vs. 0.97±0.14, t=4.35, P=0.007; undergraduate students 1.57±0.55 vs. 3.77±1.24, t=3.62, P=0.015), but dynamic strategy was effective for post-doc student subgroup and reached comparable QTS as traditional model (0.00±0.00 vs. 0.17±0.41, t=1.00, P=0.363).   Conclusions  Dynamic adaptive teaching strategy could be a useful alternative to traditional teaching model for post-doc students. It could be a novel effective solution for saving teaching resources and providing individualized surgical teaching modality

Additional file 1 of Lipid changes during endocrine therapy in early-stage breast cancer patients: A real-world study

Supplementary Material 1: Certificate of language-2023091

DataSheet_1_Clinicopathologic features, treatment, and prognosis of pregnancy-associated breast cancer.docx

PurposeTo identify the clinicopathological features, treatment, and prognosis of patients with breast cancer, who were diagnosed during and after pregnancy.MethodsWe searched for patients with pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) using the big data query and analysis system of Peking Union Medical College Hospital from between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2021, and matched each patient with two non-PABC patients by age at diagnosis, year at diagnosis, and tumor stage. The clinicopathologic features, treatment, and outcomes of breast cancer during pregnancy (BC-P) and breast cancer during the first-year post-partum (BC-PP) were examined retrospectively in two case-control studies.ResultsEighteen BC-P cases, 36 controls for BC-P cases, 62 BC-PP cases, and 124 controls for BC-PP cases were enrolled in our study. The expression of HER-2 and Ki-67 was higher in BC-PP cases than in its controls (P=0.01, 0.018, respectively). Patients with BC-PP were more likely to choose mastectomy than breast-conserving surgery (P=0.001). There were no significant differences in event-free survival (EFS) between patients with BC-P and BC-PP and their controls.ConclusionBC-P and BC-PP patients displayed adverse clinicopathological features in our population. However, when matched by age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, and tumor stage, BC-P and BC-PP patients did not show inferior outcomes to controls, probably due to aggressive multimodality therapy.</p

Fed-SC : One-shot federated subspace clustering over high-dimensional data

Recent work has explored federated clustering and developed an efficient k-means based method. However, it is well known that k-means clustering underperforms in high-dimensional space due to the so-called "curse of dimensionality". In addition, high-dimensional data (e.g., generated from healthcare, medical, and biological sectors) are pervasive in the big data era, which poses critical challenges to federated clustering in terms of, but not limited to, clustering effectiveness and communication efficiency. To fill this significant gap in federated clustering, we propose a one-shot federated subspace clustering scheme Fed-SC that can achieve remarkable clustering effectiveness on high-dimensional data while keeping communication cost low using only one round of communication for each local device. We further establish theoretical guarantees on the clustering effectiveness of one-shot Fed-SC and exploit the benefits of statistical heterogeneity across distributed data. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate significant effectiveness gains of Fed-SC compared with both subspace clustering and one-shot federated clustering methods

Long noncoding RNA AFAP1-AS1 promotes tumor progression and invasion by regulating the miR-2110/Sp1 axis in triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract Long noncoding ribonucleic acids (LncRNAs) have been found to be involved in the proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration, and other pathological processes of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Expression of the lncRNA actin filament-associated protein 1 antisense RNA1 (AFAP1-AS1) has been found to be significantly higher in TNBC than in other subtypes or in normal tissue samples, but the specific mechanism by which AFAP1-AS1 affects the occurrence and development of TNBC is yet to be revealed. In this study, we used Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, wound healing migration, Transwell invasion, and nude mouse xenograft assays to confirm the role of AFAP1-AS1 in the proliferation, migration of TNBC cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we performed bioinformatics analyses, reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), western blot (WB), and dual-luciferase reporter assays (dual-LRA) to confirm interaction among AFAP1-AS1, micro-RNA 2110 (miR-2110), and Sp1 transcription factor (Sp1). We found that silencing AFAP1-AS1 and Sp1 or upregulating miR-2110 suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of MDA–MB-231 and MDA–MB-468 cells in vitro as well as tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, the dual-LRA highlighted that miR-2110 was an inhibitory target of AFAP1-AS1, and that AFAP1-AS1 functioned as a miR-2110 sponge to increase Sp1 expression. AFAP1-AS1 silencing led to a reduction in Sp1 mRNA and protein levels, which could be reversed by joint transfection with miR-2110 inhibitor. Our findings demonstrated that AFAP1-AS1 could modulate the progression of breast cancer cells and affect tumorigenesis in mice by acting as a miR-2110 sponge, resulting in regulation of Sp1 expression. Therefore, AFAP1-AS1 could play a pivotal role in the treatment of TNBC