A retrospective safety and efficacy analysis of the first patients treated with eribulin for metastatic breast cancer in Stockholm, Sweden

<div><p></p><p><b>Backgrounds.</b> Eribulin is a non-taxane, microtubule dynamics inhibitor approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in Europe in March 2011.</p><p><b>Material and methods.</b> For the purpose of an internal quality control, all patients with MBC treated with eribulin at Karolinska University Hospital were registered in a database. Clinical data were collected retrospectively for patients that were registered by August 2012 and safety and efficacy of eribulin were evaluated. Treatment toxicity including fatigue, neurotoxicity and infection was graded according to CTCAE v4.0. Objective response to treatment was investigated using routinely performed radiological assessments. When only clinical assessments were made, the evaluation of the treating physician was used. Furthermore, the efficacy of eribulin was investigated in different tumor subtypes.</p><p><b>Results.</b> Forty-eight patients who received at least one cycle of eribulin were identified. Most patients were heavily pretreated with a median of 3 (range 1–7) previous chemotherapy lines prior to eribulin. Median patient age was 56 years (range 35–74). At the end of the analysis, 23 patients were alive and two were still treated with eribulin. No hypersensitivity reactions and no toxic deaths were seen. Fatigue grade 3–4 was observed in three patients (6.3%). One patient experienced grade 4 neurotoxicity. Grade 3–4 neutropenia was documented in 18.8%, and three patients were treated for a grade 3 infection. Interestingly, three individuals developed Herpes zoster reactivation. One patient responded to treatment with complete remission, while 33.3% had a partial response. 48% of all patients had a clinical benefit (objective response or stable disease for more than six months).</p><p><b>Conclusions.</b> Eribulin administered outside of a clinical trial in patients with advanced breast cancer was safe and well tolerated. A clinical benefit was seen in half of the cases. No statistically significant differences in objective response or survival were observed between histopathological subgroups.</p></div

DataSheet_1_Expression patterns and prognostic implications of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes dynamics in early breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.docx

PurposeHigh levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are associated with better outcomes in early breast cancer and higher pathological response rates to neoadjuvant chemotherapy especially in the triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2+ subtypes. However, the dynamic changes in TILs levels after neoadjuvant treatment (NAT) are less studied. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the patterns and role of TILs dynamics change in early breast cancer patients receiving NAT.MethodsMedline, Embase, Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed Central databases were searched for eligible studies. Data were extracted independently by two researchers and discordances were resolved by a third. Pooled TILs rates pre- & post-treatment (overall and per subtype), pooled rates of ΔTILs and direction of change after NAT as well as correlation of ΔTILs with survival outcomes were generated in the outcome analysis.ResultsOf 2116 identified entries, 34 studies fulfilled the criteria and provided adequate data for the outcomes of interest. A decreased level of TILs was observed after NAT in paired samples across all subtypes. The effect of NAT on TILs was most prominent in TNBC subtype with a substantial change, either increase or decrease, in 79.3% (95% CI 61.7-92.6%) of the patients as well as in HER2+ disease (14.4% increased vs 46.2% decreased). An increase in ΔTILs in TNBC was associated with better disease-free/relapse-free survival in pooled analysis (univariate HR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.37–0.95, p = 0.03).ConclusionThis meta-analysis illustrates the TILs dynamics during NAT for breast cancer and indicates prognostic implications of ΔTILs in TNBC. The potential clinical utility of the longitudinal assessment of TILs during neoadjuvant therapy warrants further validation.</p