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Introduction: We aimed to compare short term outcomes after robot assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) and open radical cystectomy (ORC) for urinary bladder cancer in a large population. Materials and methods: We included all patients without distant metastases who underwent either RARC or ORC with ileal conduit between 2011 and 2019 registered in the Bladder cancer data Base Sweden (BladderBaSe) 2.0. Primary outcome was unplanned readmissions within 90 days, and secondary out-comes within 90 days of surgery were reoperations, Clavien 3-5 complications, total days alive and out of hospital, and mortality. The analysis was carried out using multivariate regression models. Results: Out of 2905 patients, 832 were operated with RARC and 2073 with ORC. Robotic procedures were to a larger extent performed during later years, at high volume centers (47% vs 17%), more often for organ-confined disease (82% vs. 72%) and more frequently in patients with high socioeconomic status (26% vs. 21%). Patients operated with RARC were more commonly readmitted (29% vs. 25%). In multi -variable analysis RARC was associated with decreased risk of Clavien 3-5 complications (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.47-0.72), reoperations (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.39-0.71) and had more days alive and out of hospital (mean difference 3.7 days, 95% CI 2.4-5.0). Conclusion: This study illustrates the "real-world" effects of a gradual and nation-wide introduction of RARC. Patients operated with RARC had fewer major complications and reoperations but were more frequently readmitted compared to ORC. The observed differences were largely due to more wound related complications among patients treated with ORC.

27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC), synthesized from cholesterol by the enzyme CYP27A1, differentially impacts estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC) cell growth depending on estrogen levels. This study examined the association between CYP27A1 expression and prognosis in a cohort of 193 premenopausal patients with lymph node-negative primary BC with limited exposure to adjuvant systemic cancer treatments. In multivariable analyses among patients with ER+ tumors, high CYP27A1 protein and mRNA expressions were associated with four- and eight-fold reductions in the incidence of distant recurrence-free survival events: HRadj = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.07–0.93 and HRadj = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.03–0.60, respectively. In vitro studies revealed that 27HC treatment potently inhibited ER+ BC cell proliferation under lipid-depleted conditions regardless of estradiol levels, transcriptionally mediated through the downregulation of ER signaling with a concomitant upregulation of cholesterol export. Importantly, if validated, these results may have implications for adjuvant treatment decisions in premenopausal patients, especially when de-escalation of therapy is being considered.

OBJECTIVE: The most common form of urinary bladder cancer is the low and intermediate risk categories of stage Ta. This patient group has a high recurrence rate, but progression is rare. The aim of this study was to investigate recurrence and survival in a large population-based setting, with respect to possible prognostic factors and during different time periods. PATIENTS AND METHODS: BladderBaSe is a database which links information from the Swedish National Register of Urinary Bladder Cancer with national healthcare and demographic registers. Between 1997 and 2014, 16,599 were diagnosed with low and intermediate risk of Ta cancer in Sweden. The times to recurrence and cancer-specific death were analysed concerning the differences in age, gender, grade, region and hospital type. For temporal analysis, we divided the material into 6-year periods. RESULTS: The mean age was 70 years and 75% were males. Low risk according to grade constituted 56%, whilst 44% had intermediate risk. With a median follow-up time of 63 months the recurrence rates were 47% and 59% for the respective categories and overall 52%. The rate was similar between the first two time periods, but became substantially lower in the most recent period. Five percent of patients died of the disease and risk category was the main prognostic variable. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of recurrence decreased in the last time period. Risk category based on grade was the most important prognostic indicator for outcome.

Objectives To evaluate the clinical utility of the urinary bladder cancer antigen test UBC (R) Rapid for the diagnosis of bladder cancer (BC) and to develop and validate nomograms to identify patients at high risk of primary BC. Patients and Methods Data from 1787 patients from 13 participating centres, who were tested between 2012 and 2020, including 763 patients with BC, were analysed. Urine samples were analysed with the UBC (R) Rapid test. The nomograms were developed using data from 320 patients and externally validated using data from 274 patients. The diagnostic accuracy of the UBC (R) Rapid test was evaluated using receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. Brier scores and calibration curves were chosen for the validation. Biopsy-proven BC was predicted using multivariate logistic regression. Results The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve for the UBC (R) Rapid test were 46.4%, 75.5% and 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.58-0.64) for low-grade (LG) BC, and 70.5%, 75.5% and 0.73 (95% CI 0.70-0.76) for high-grade (HG) BC, respectively. Age, UBC (R) Rapid test results, smoking status and haematuria were identified as independent predictors of primary BC. After external validation, nomograms based on these predictors resulted in areas under the curve of 0.79 (95% CI 0.72-0.87) and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.92-0.98) for predicting LG-BC and HG-BC, respectively, showing excellent calibration associated with a higher net benefit than the UBC (R) Rapid test alone for low and medium risk levels in decision curve analysis. The R Shiny app allows the results to be explored interactively and can be accessed at www.blucab-index. net. Conclusion The UBC (R) Rapid test alone has limited clinical utility for predicting the presence of BC. However, its combined use with BC risk factors including age, smoking status and haematuria provides a fast, highly accurate and non-invasive tool for screening patients for primary LG-BC and especially primary HG-BC.

PURPOSE Most patients with early-stage breast cancer are treated with adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) to prevent locoregional recurrence (LRR). However, no genomic tools are used currently to select the optimal RT strategy. METHODS We profiled the transcriptome of primary tumors on a clinical grade assay from the SweBCG91-RT trial, in which patients with node-negative breast cancer were randomly assigned to either whole-breast RT after BCS or no RT. We derived a new classifier, Adjuvant Radiotherapy Intensification Classifier (ARTIC), comprising 27 genes and patient age, in three publicly available cohorts, then independently validated ARTIC for LRR in 748 patients in SweBCG91-RT. We also compared previously published genomic signatures for ability to predict benefit from RT in SweBCG91-RT. RESULTS ARTIC was highly prognostic for LRR in patients treated with RT (hazard ratio [HR], 3.4; 95% CI, 2.0 to 5.9; P < .001) and predictive of RT benefit ( Pinteraction = .005). Patients with low ARTIC scores had a large benefit from RT (HR, 0.33 [95% CI, 0.21 to 0.52], P < .001; 10-year cumulative incidence of LRR, 6% v 21%), whereas those with high ARTIC scores benefited less from RT (HR, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.44 to 1.2], P = .23; 10-year cumulative incidence of LRR, 25% v 32%). In contrast, none of the eight previously published signatures were predictive of benefit from RT in SweBCG91-RT. CONCLUSION ARTIC identified women with a substantial benefit from RT as well as women with a particularly elevated LRR risk in whom whole-breast RT was not sufficiently effective and, thus, in whom intensified treatment strategies such as tumor-bed boost, and possibly regional nodal RT, should be considered. To our knowledge, ARTIC is the first classifier validated as predictive of benefit from RT in a phase III clinical trial with patients randomly assigned to receive or not receive RT.

BackgroundPrognostic factors in breast cancer are often measured on a continuous scale, but categorized for clinical decision-making. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate if accounting for continuous non-linear effects of the three factors age at diagnosis, tumor size, and number of positive lymph nodes improves prognostication. These factors will most likely be included in the management of breast cancer patients also in the future, after an expected implementation of gene expression profiling for adjuvant treatment decision-making.MethodsFour thousand four hundred forty seven and 1132 women with primary breast cancer constituted the derivation and validation set, respectively. Potential non-linear effects on the log hazard of distant recurrences of the three factors were evaluated during 10years of follow-up. Cox-models of successively increasing complexity: dichotomized predictors, predictors categorized into three or four groups, and predictors transformed using fractional polynomials (FPs) or restricted cubic splines (RCS), were used. Predictive performance was evaluated by Harrells C-index.ResultsUsing FP-transformations, non-linear effects were detected for tumor size and number of positive lymph nodes in univariable analyses. For age, non-linear transformations did, however, not improve the model fit significantly compared to the linear identity transformation. As expected, the C-index increased with increasing model complexity for multivariable models including the three factors. By allowing more than one cut-point per factor, the C-index increased from 0.628 to 0.674. The additional gain, as measured by the C-index, when using FP- or RCS-transformations was modest (0.695 and 0.696, respectively). The corresponding C-indices for these four models in the validation set, based on the same transformations and parameter estimates from the derivation set, were 0.675, 0.700, 0.706, and 0.701.ConclusionsCategorization of each factor into three to four groups was found to improve prognostication compared to dichotomization. The additional gain by allowing continuous non-linear effects modeled by FPs or RCS was modest. However, the continuous nature of these transformations has the advantage of making it possible to form risk groups of any size. Funding Agencies|Swedish Cancer Society; Swedish Research Council; Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Foundation; Swedish Breast Cancer Association; Swedish Cancer and Allergy Foundation; Mrs. Berta Kamprad Foundation; Anna and Edwin Bergers Foundation; Skane County Councils Research and Development Foundation; Governmental Funding of Clinical Research within the National Health Service

Background The development of a reactive tumour stroma is a hallmark of tumour progression and pronounced tumour stroma is generally considered to be associated with clinical aggressiveness. The variability between tumour types regarding stroma fraction, and its prognosis associations, have not been systematically analysed. Methods Using an objective machine-learning method we quantified the tumour stroma in 16 solid cancer types from 2732 patients, representing retrospective tissue collections of surgically resected primary tumours. Image analysis performed tissue segmentation into stromal and epithelial compartment based on pan-cytokeratin staining and autofluorescence patterns. Findings The stroma fraction was highly variable within and across the tumour types, with kidney cancer showing the lowest and pancreato-biliary type periampullary cancer showing the highest stroma proportion (median 19% and 73% respectively). Adjusted Cox regression models revealed both positive (pancreato-biliary type periampullary cancer and oestrogen negative breast cancer, HR(95%CI)=0.56(0.34-0.92) and HR(95%CI)=0.41(0.17-0.98) respectively) and negative (intestinal type periampullary cancer, HR(95%CI)=3.59(1.49-8.62)) associations of the tumour stroma fraction with survival. Interpretation Our study provides an objective quantification of the tumour stroma fraction across major types of solid cancer. Findings strongly argue against the commonly promoted view of a general associations between high stroma abundance and poor prognosis. The results also suggest that full exploitation of the prognostic potential of tumour stroma requires analyses that go beyond determination of stroma abundance. Funding The Swedish Cancer Society, The Lions Cancer Foundation Uppsala, The Swedish Government Grant for Clinical Research, The Mrs Berta Kamprad Foundation, Sweden, Sellanders foundation, P.O.Zetterling Foundation, and The Sjoberg Foundation, Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Routine VTE prophylaxis within 30 days of radical cystectomy (RC) for urinary bladder cancer (UBC) is used to protect from venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, randomized studies and nationwide population-based studies are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To study VTE and risk factors for VTE in muscle-invasive UBC in a nationwide population-based series, with a focus on the association with RC with and without chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied all patients with clinical stage T2-T4 UBC diagnosed 1997 to 2014 in the Bladder Cancer Data Base Sweden (BladderBaSe). Previous VTE events and risk factors for VTE were registered from 1987. Cox regression analyses and Kaplan-Meier curves were performed to study risk factors for VTE and cumulative incidence of VTE. RESULTS: In 9720 patients (71% males) with a median age of 74 years 546 (5.6%) had VTE after diagnosis. In Cox analyses controlling for patients and tumour characteristics, and risk factors for VTE, VTE after diagnosis and first treatment date were associated with chemotherapy with or without RC. Cumulative incidence of VTE increased during 24 months after diagnosis and first treatment date. VTE were less common in patients with previous cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSION: VTE was commonly observed after 30 days from diagnosis and from first treatment date in patients with T2-T4 UBC, particularly after chemotherapy. The findings suggest that long-term intervention studies of benefit and possible harms of VTE prophylaxis after UBC should be undertaken. Funding Agencies|Swedish Cancer SocietySwedish Cancer Society [CAN 2016/470, CAN 2017/278]

Bladder cancer, one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide, remains hard to classify due to a staggering molecular complexity. Despite a plethora of diagnostic tools and therapies, it is hard to outline the key steps leading up to the transition from high-risk non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) to muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Carcinogen-induced murine models can recapitulate urothelial carcinogenesis and natural anti-tumor immunity. Herein, we have developed and profiled a novel model of progressive NMIBC based on 10 weeks of OH-BBN exposure in hepatocyte growth factor/cyclin dependent kinase 4 (R24C) (Hgf-Cdk4R24C) mice. The profiling of the model was performed by histology grading, single cell transcriptomic and proteomic analysis, while the derivation of a tumorigenic cell line was validated and used to assess in vivo anti-tumor effects in response to immunotherapy. Established NMIBC was present in females at 10 weeks post OH-BBN exposure while neoplasia was not as advanced in male mice, however all mice progressed to MIBC. Single cell RNA sequencing analysis revealed an intratumoral heterogeneity also described in the human disease trajectory. Moreover, although immune activation biomarkers were elevated in urine during carcinogen exposure, anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD1) monotherapy did not prevent tumor progression. Furthermore, anti-PD1 immunotherapy did not control the growth of subcutaneous tumors formed by the newly derived urothelial cancer cell line. However, treatment with CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) significantly decreased tumor volume, but only in females. In conclusion, the molecular map of this novel preclinical model of bladder cancer provides an opportunity to further investigate pharmacological therapies ahead with regards to both targeted drugs and immunotherapies to improve the strategies of how we should tackle the heterogeneous tumor microenvironment in urothelial bladder cancer to improve responses rates in the clinic.

Purpose To investigate the association of patients’ sex with recurrence and disease progression in patients treated with intravesical bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) for T1G3/HG urinary bladder cancer (UBC). Materials and methods We analyzed the data of 2635 patients treated with adjuvant intravesical BCG for T1 UBC between 1984 and 2019. We accounted for missing data using multiple imputations and adjusted for covariate imbalance between males and females using inverse probability weighting (IPW). Crude and IPW-adjusted Cox regression analyses were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of patients’ sex with HG-recurrence and disease progression. Results A total of 2170 (82%) males and 465 (18%) females were available for analysis. Overall, 1090 (50%) males and 244 (52%) females experienced recurrence, and 391 (18%) males and 104 (22%) females experienced disease progression. On IPW-adjusted Cox regression analyses, female sex was associated with disease progression (HR 1.25, 95%CI 1.01–1.56, p = 0.04) but not with recurrence (HR 1.06, 95%CI 0.92–1.22, p = 0.41). A total of 1056 patients were treated with adequate BCG. In these patients, on IPW-adjusted Cox regression analyses, patients’ sex was not associated with recurrence (HR 0.99, 95%CI 0.80–1.24, p = 0.96), HG-recurrence (HR 1.00, 95%CI 0.78–1.29, p = 0.99) or disease progression (HR 1.12, 95%CI 0.78–1.60, p = 0.55). Conclusion Our analysis generates the hypothesis of a differential response to BCG between males and females if not adequately treated. Further studies should focus on sex-based differences in innate and adaptive immune system and their association with BCG response.

Samples in biobanks are generally preserved by formalin-fixation and paraffin-embedding (FFPE) and/or optimal cutting temperature compound (OCT)-embedding and subsequently frozen. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based analysis of these samples is now available via developed protocols, however, the differences in results with respect to preservation methods needs further investigation. Here we use bladder urothelial carcinoma tissue of two different tumor stages (Ta/T1—non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), and T2/T3—muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC)) which, upon sampling, were divided and preserved by FFPE and OCT. Samples were parallel processed from the two methods and proteins were analyzed with label-free quantitative MS. Over 700 and 1200 proteins were quantified in FFPE and OCT samples, respectively. Multivariate analysis indicates that the preservation method is the main source of variation, but also tumors of different stages could be differentiated. Proteins involved in mitochondrial function were overrepresented in OCT data but missing in the FFPE data, indicating that these proteins are not well preserved by FFPE. Concordant results for proteins such as HMGCS2 (uniquely quantified in Ta/T1 tumors), and LGALS1, ANXA5 and plastin (upregulated in T2/T3 tumors) were observed in both FFPE and OCT data, which supports the use of MS technology for biobank samples and encourages the further evaluation of these proteins as biomarkers., Open access funding provided by Uppsala University., This work was supported by Magnus Bergvall Foundation (S.B.L, 2017-02330, 2018-02726, 2019-03296), Clas Groschinsky memory foundation (S.B.L., M1603, M1742), and Swedish Foundation for Strategic research (S.B.L., SB16-0039). A.V. would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Science and Innovation for a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral Grant.

Objective For patients undergoing radical cystectomy for bladder cancer, a procedure requiring complex urinary tract reconstruction prone to major postoperative complications, the timing and quality of the surgery have been associated with outcomes. Patients and methods This study investigated if radical cystectomy for bladder cancer performed during holiday periods had worse disease-specific (DSS) and overall survival (OS), higher 90-day mortality and risk of readmissions. All patients operated on with radical cystectomy for primary bladder cancer during 1997-2014 with holiday periods as exposure (with one narrow (7 weeks) and one wider (14 weeks) definition) in the Swedish population-based bladder cancer research-database (BladderBaSe) were studied. DSS and OS after radical cystectomy during holiday periods were analysed with Cox regression models adjusted for sex, age, comorbidity, marital status, T-stage and nodal metastases, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, hospital volume and year of cystectomy. Results Surgery during the holiday periods (narrow and wide definitions) were not associated with DSS (Hazard ratio [HR] = 1.05, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.90-1.21 and HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.91-1.17), respectively. HRs for OS were similar, and no associations between radical cystectomy during any of the holiday period definitions and 90-day mortality and readmission were found. Conclusion Survival after radical cystectomy in Sweden is similar during holiday and non-holiday periods. Funding Agencies|Swedish Cancer SocietySwedish Cancer Society [CAN 2019/62, CAN 2017/278]; Lund Medical Faculty (ALF); Skane University Hospital Research Funds; Gyllenstierna Krapperup s Foundation; Skane County Councils Research and Development Foundation [REGSKANE-622351]; Gosta Jonsson Research Foundation; Foundation of Urological Research; Hillevi Fries Research Foundation

Purpose Preoperative chemotherapy is underused in conjunction with radical cystectomy (RC) for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) due to concerns for complications and delay of surgery. Prospective data on short-term complications from population-based settings with frequent use of preoperative chemotherapy and standardised reporting of complications is lacking. Methods We identified 1,340 patients who underwent RC between 2011 and 2015 in Sweden due to MIBC according to the Swedish Cystectomy Register. These individuals were followed through linkages to several national registers. Propensity score adjusted logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for complications and death within 90 days of surgery, comparing patients receiving preoperative chemotherapy or not. Results Minimum two cycles of preoperative chemotherapy were given to 519 (39%) of the patients, who on average tended to be younger, have higher education, better physical status, and more advanced bladder cancer than patients not receiving chemotherapy. After adjusting for these and other parameters, there was no association between treatment with preoperative chemotherapy and short-term complications (OR 1.06 95% CI 0.82–1.39) or mortality (OR 0.75 95% CI 0.36–1.55). We observed a risk reduction for gastrointestinal complications among patients who received preoperative chemotherapy compared with those who did not (OR 0.49 95% CI 0.30–0.81). Conclusion This nation-wide population-based observational study does not suggest that preoperative chemotherapy, in a setting with high utilisation of such treatment, is associated with an increased risk of short-term complications in MIBC patients treated with radical cystectomy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00345-019-02770-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Little attention was given to the interaction between tumor and stromal cells in urothelial bladder carcinoma (UBC). While recent studies point towards the existence of different fibroblast subsets, no comprehensive analyses linking different fibroblast markers to UBC patient survival have been performed so far. Through immunohistochemical analysis of five selected fibroblast markers, namely alpha smooth muscle actin (ASMA), CD90/Thy-1, fibroblast activation protein (FAP), platelet derived growth factor receptor-alpha and -beta (PDGFRa,-b), this study investigates their association with survival and histopathological characteristics in a cohort of 344 UBC patients, involving both, muscle-invasive and non-muscle-invasive cases. The data indicates that combinations of stromal markers are more suited to identify prognostic patient subgroups than single marker analysis. Refined stroma-marker-based patient stratification was achieved through cluster analysis and identified a FAP-dominant patient cluster as independent marker for shorter 5-year-survival (HR(95% CI)2.25(1.08–4.67), p = 0.030). Analyses of interactions between fibroblast and CD8a-status identified a potential minority of cases with CD90-defined stroma and high CD8a infiltration showing a good prognosis of more than 80% 5-year-survival. Presented analyses point towards the existence of different stroma-cell subgroups with distinct tumor-modulatory properties and motivate further studies aiming to better understand the molecular tumor–stroma crosstalk in UBC.

Objectives: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have investigated the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and its effect on survival patients with non-metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). However, these RCTs have limited external validity and generalisability and, therefore, the current study aims to use real world evidence in the form of observational data to identify the effect that NAC may have on survival, compared to the use of radical cystectomy (RC) alone. Materials and methods: The study cohort (consisting of 944 patients) was selected as a target trial from the Bladder Cancer Data Base Sweden (BladderBaSe). This study calculated 5-year survival and risk of bladder cancer (BC)-specific and overall death by Cox proportional hazard models for the study cohort and a propensity score (PS) matched cohort. Results: Those who had received NAC had higher 5-year survival proportions and decreased risk of both overall and BC specific death (HR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.52–0.97 and HR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.48–0.94), respectively, as compared to patients who did not receive NAC. The PS matched cohort showed similar estimates, but with larger statistical uncertainty (Overall death: HR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.53–1.09 and BC-specific death: HR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.50–1.07). Conclusion: Results from the current observational study found similar point estimates for 5-year survival and of relative risks as previous studies. However, the results based on real world evidence had larger statistical variability, resulting in a non-statistically significant effect of NAC on survival. Future studies with detailed validated data can be used to further investigate the effect of NAC in narrower patient groups.

Background Adjuvant radiotherapy is the standard of care after breast-conserving surgery for primary breast cancer, despite a majority of patients being over- or under-treated. In contrast to adjuvant endocrine therapy and chemotherapy, no diagnostic tests are in clinical use that can stratify patients for adjuvant radiotherapy. This study presents the development and validation of a targeted gene expression assay to predict the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence and response to adjuvant radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in primary breast cancer. Methods Fresh-frozen primary tumors from 336 patients radically (clear margins) operated on with breast-conserving surgery with or without radiotherapy were collected. Patients were split into a discovery cohort (N = 172) and a validation cohort (N = 164). Genes predicting ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence in an Illumina HT12 v4 whole transcriptome analysis were combined with genes identified in the literature (248 genes in total) to develop a targeted radiosensitivity assay on the Nanostring nCounter platform. Single-sample predictors for ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence based on a k-top scoring pairs algorithm were trained, stratified for estrogen receptor (ER) status and radiotherapy. Two previously published profiles, the radiosensitivity signature of Speers et al., and the 10-gene signature of Eschrich et al., were also included in the targeted panel. Results Derived single-sample predictors were prognostic for ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence in radiotherapy-treated ER+ patients (AUC 0.67, p = 0.01), ER+ patients without radiotherapy (AUC = 0.89, p = 0.02), and radiotherapy-treated ER- patients (AUC = 0.78, p

PURPOSE: To evaluate the oncological impact of postponing radical cystectomy (RC) to allow further conservative therapies prior to progression in a large multicentre retrospective cohort of T1-HG/G3 patients initially treated with BCG. METHODS: According to the time of RC, the population was divided into 3 groups: patients who did not progress to muscle-invasive disease, patients who progressed before radical cystectomy and patients who experienced progression at the time of radical cystectomy. Clinical and pathological outcomes were compared across the three groups. RESULTS: Of 2451 patients, 509 (20.8%) underwent RC. Patients with tumors > 3 cm or with CIS had earlier cystectomies (HR = 1.79, p = 0.001 and HR = 1.53, p = 0.02, respectively). Patients with tumors > 3 cm, multiple tumors or CIS had earlier T3/T4 or N + cystectomies. In patients who progressed, the timing of cystectomy did not affect the risk of T3/T4 or N + disease at RC. Patients with T3/T4 or N + disease at RC had a shorter disease-specific survival (HR = 4.38, p

BACKGROUND: Progression of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) to muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is life-threatening and cannot be accurately predicted using clinical and pathological risk factors. Biomarkers for stratifying patients to treatment and surveillance are greatly needed.OBJECTIVE: To validate a previously developed 12-gene progression score to predict progression to MIBC in a large, multicentre, prospective study.DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We enrolled 1224 patients in ten European centres between 2008 and 2012. A total of 750 patients (851 tumours) fulfilled the inclusion and sample quality criteria for testing. Patients were followed for an average of 28 mo (range 0-76). A 12-gene real-time qualitative polymerase chain reaction assay was performed for all tumours and progression scores were calculated using a predefined formula and cut-off values.OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: We measured progression to MIBC using Cox regression analysis and log-rank tests for comparing survival distributions.RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The progression score was significantly (pCONCLUSIONS: The 12-gene progression score had independent prognostic power beyond clinical and histopathological risk factors, and may help in stratifying NMIBC patients to optimise treatment and follow-up regimens.PATIENT SUMMARY: Clinical use of a 12-gene molecular test for disease aggressiveness may help in stratifying patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer to optimal treatment regimens.

BACKGROUND: Pathological complete response (pCR) following chemotherapy is strongly associated with both breast cancer subtype and long-term survival. Within a phase III neoadjuvant chemotherapy trial, we sought to determine whether the prognostic implications of pCR, TP53 status and treatment arm (taxane versus non-taxane) differed between intrinsic subtypes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were randomized to receive either six cycles of anthracycline-based chemotherapy or three cycles of docetaxel then three cycles of eprirubicin/docetaxel (T-ET). pCR was defined as no evidence of residual invasive cancer (or very few scattered tumour cells) in primary tumour and lymph nodes. We used a simplified intrinsic subtypes classification, as suggested by the 2011 St Gallen consensus. Interactions between pCR, TP53 status, treatment arm and intrinsic subtype on event-free survival (EFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and overall survival (OS) were studied using a landmark and a two-step approach multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Sufficient data for pCR analyses were available in 1212 (65%) of 1856 patients randomized. pCR occurred in 222 of 1212 (18%) patients: 37 of 496 (7.5%) luminal A, 22 of 147 (15%) luminal B/HER2 negative, 51 of 230 (22%) luminal B/HER2 positive, 43 of 118 (36%) HER2 positive/non-luminal, 69 of 221(31%) triple negative (TN). The prognostic effect of pCR on EFS did not differ between subtypes and was an independent predictor for better EFS [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.40, P < 0.001 in favour of pCR], DMFS (HR = 0.32, P < 0.001) and OS (HR = 0.32, P < 0.001). Chemotherapy arm was an independent predictor only for EFS (HR = 0.73, P = 0.004 in favour of T-ET). The interaction between TP53, intrinsic subtypes and survival outcomes only approached statistical significance for EFS (P = 0.1). CONCLUSIONS: pCR is an independent predictor of favourable clinical outcomes in all molecular subtypes in a two-step multivariate analysis. CLINICALTRIALSGOV: EORTC 10994/BIG 1-00 Trial registration number NCT00017095.

PURPOSE: Only 3% to 28% of patients referred to the urology clinic for hematuria are diagnosed with bladder cancer. Cystoscopy leads to high diagnostic costs and a high patient burden. Therefore, to improve the selection of patients for cystoscopy and reduce costs and over testing we aimed to validate a recently developed diagnostic urine assay.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Included in study were 200 patients from a total of 3 European countries who underwent cystoscopy for hematuria, including 97 with bladder cancer and 103 with nonmalignant findings. Voided urine samples were collected prior to cystoscopy. DNA was extracted and analyzed for mutations in FGFR3, TERT and HRAS, and methylation of OTX1, ONECUT2 and TWIST1. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between predictor variables and bladder cancer.RESULTS: Combining the methylation and mutation markers with age led to an AUC of 0.96 (95% CI 0.92-0.99) with 93% sensitivity and 86% specificity, and an optimism corrected AUC of 0.95. The AUC was higher for T1 or greater tumors compared to Ta tumors (0.99 vs 0.93). The AUC was also higher for high grade tumors compared to low grade tumors (1.00 vs 0.93). Overall negative predictive value was 99% based on the 5% to 10% prevalence of bladder cancer in patients with hematuria. This would lead to a 77% reduction in diagnostic cystoscopy.CONCLUSIONS: Analyzing hematuria patients for the risk of bladder cancer using novel molecular markers may lead to a reduction in diagnostic cystoscopy. Combining methylation analysis (OTX1, ONECUT2 and TWIST1) with mutation analysis (FGFR3, TERT and HRAS) and patient age resulted in a validated accurate prediction model.

Tumor progression and prognosis in breast cancer patients are difficult to assess using current clinical and laboratory parameters, where a pathological grading is indicative of tumor aggressiveness. This grading is based on assessments of nuclear grade, tubule formation, and mitotic rate. We report here the first protein signatures associated with histological grades of breast cancer, determined using a novel affinity proteomics approach. We profiled 52 breast cancer tissue samples by combining nine antibodies and label-free LC-MS/MS, which generated detailed quantified proteomic maps representing 1,388 proteins. The results showed that we could define in-depth molecular portraits of histologically graded breast cancer tumors. Consequently, a 49-plex candidate tissue protein signature was defined that discriminated between histological grades 1, 2, and 3 of breast cancer tumors with high accuracy. Highly biologically relevant proteins were identified, and the differentially expressed proteins indicated further support for the current hypothesis regarding remodeling of the tumor microenvironment during tumor progression. The protein signature was corroborated using meta-analysis of transcriptional profiling data from an independent patient cohort. In addition, the potential for using the markers to estimate the likelihood of long-term metastasis-free survival was also indicated. Taken together, these molecular portraits could pave the way for improved classification and prognostication of breast cancer.

Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is a heterogeneous disease with widely different outcomes. We performed a comprehensive transcriptional analysis of 460 early-stage urothelial carcinomas and showed that NMIBC can be subgrouped into three major classes with basal- and luminal-like characteristics and different clinical outcomes. Large differences in biological processes such as the cell cycle, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and differentiation were observed. Analysis of transcript variants revealed frequent mutations in genes encoding proteins involved in chromatin organization and cytoskeletal functions. Furthermore, mutations in well-known cancer driver genes (e.g., TP53 and ERBB2) were primarily found in high-risk tumors, together with APOBEC-related mutational signatures. The identification of subclasses in NMIBC may offer better prognostication and treatment selection based on subclass assignment.

Experimental models implicate protease activated receptors (PARs) as important sensors of the proteolytic tumor microenvironment during breast cancer development. However, the role of the major PARs, PAR-1 and PAR-2, in human breast tumors remains to be elucidated. Here, we have investigated how PAR-1 and PAR-2 protein expression correlate with established clinicopathological variables and patient outcome in a well-characterized cohort of 221 breast cancer patients. Univariable and multivariable hazard ratios (HR) were estimated by the Cox proportional hazards model, distant disease-free survival (DDFS) and overall survival by the Kaplan-Meier method, and survival in different strata was determined by the log-rank test. Associations between PARs and clinicopathological variables were analyzed using Pearson's χ2-test. We find that PAR-2 associates with DDFS (HR = 3.1, P = 0.003), whereas no such association was found with PAR-1 (HR = 1.2, P = 0.6). Interestingly, the effect of PAR-2 was confined to the ER-positive sub-group (HR = 5.5, P = 0.003 vs. HR = 1.2 in ER-negative; P = 0.045 for differential effect), and PAR-2 was an independent prognostic factor specifically in ER-positive tumors (HR = 3.9, P = 0.045). On the contrary, PAR-1 correlated with worse prognosis specifically in the ER-negative group (HR = 2.6, P = 0.069 vs. HR = 0.5, P = 0.19 in ER-positive; P = 0.026 for differential effect). This study provides novel insight into the respective roles of PAR-1 and PAR-2 in human breast cancer and suggests a hitherto unknown association between PARs and ER signaling that warrants further investigation.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of intratumoural microvessel density in breast cancer. We studied immunohistochemically primary tumours of 104 patients with metastasised breast cancer who took part in a randomised multicentre trial comparing docetaxel to sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil. Vessels were highlighted with factor VIII staining and counted microscopically. Microvessel density was compared with clinical response to chemotherapy and patient survival. The microvessel density of the primary tumour was not significantly associated with patient's response to chemotherapy, time to progression or overall survival in the whole patient population or in the docetaxel or methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil groups. However, disease-free survival was longer in patients with low microvessel density (P=0.01). These findings suggest that microvessel density of the primary tumour cannot be used as a predictive marker for chemotherapy response in advanced breast cancer. British Journal of Cancer (2002) 86, 1905–1908. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6600325 www.bjcancer.com © 2002 Cancer Research UK

Background: Resistance towards endocrine therapy is a great concern in breast cancer treatment and may partly be explained by the activation of compensatory signaling pathways. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) signaling pathway was activated or deregulated in breast cancer patients and to explore if any of the markers were prognostic, with or without adjuvant tamoxifen. This signaling pathway has been suggested to cause estrogen independent cell growth and thus contribute to resistance to endocrine treatment in estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer. Methods: The protein expression of IGF1R, phosphorylated Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (p-mTOR) and phosphorylated S6 ribosomal protein (p-S6rp) were investigated by immunohistochemistry using tissue microarrays in two patient cohorts. Cohort I (N = 264) consisted of mainly postmenopausal women with stage II breast cancer treated with tamoxifen for 2 years irrespective of ER status. Cohort II (N = 206) consisted of mainly medically untreated, premenopausal patients with node-negative breast cancer. Distant disease-free survival (DDFS) at 5 years was used as end-point for survival analyses. Results: We found that lower IGF1R expression was associated with worse prognosis for tamoxifen treated, postmenopausal women (HR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.52 - 0.94, p = 0.016). The effect was seen mainly in ER-negative patients where the prognostic effect was retained after adjustment for other prognostic markers (adjusted HR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29 - 0.82, p = 0.007). Expression of IGF1R was associated with ER positivity (p less than 0.001) in the same patient cohort. Conclusions: Our results support previous studies indicating that IGF1R positivity reflects a well differentiated tumor with low metastatic capacity. An association between lack of IGF1R expression and worse prognosis was mainly seen in the ER-negative part of Cohort I. The lack of co-activation of downstream markers (p-mTOR and p-S6rp) in the IGF1R pathway suggested that the prognostic effect was not due to complete activation of this pathway. Thus, no evidence could be found for a compensatory function of IGF1R signaling in the investigated cohorts. Funding Agencies|Swedish Cancer Society; Swedish Research Council; Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Foundation; Mrs. Berta Kamprad Foundation; Anna and Edwin Bergers foundation; Skane University Hospital Research Foundation; Skane County Councils Research and Development Foundation; Governmental Funding of Clinical Research within the National Health Service

Background: Predicting any future metastatic site of early-stage breast cancer is important as it significantly influences the prognosis of advanced disease. This study aimed at investigating the potential of claudin-2, over-expressed in breast cancer liver metastases, as a biomarker for predicting liver metastatic propensity in primary breast cancer. Methods: Claudin-2 expression was analyzed in two independent cohorts. Cohort 1 included 304 women with metastatic breast cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2007, while cohort 2 included 237 premenopausal women with early-stage node-negative breast cancer diagnosed between 1991 and 1994. Global transcriptional profiling of fine-needle aspirates from metastases was performed, followed by immunohistochemical analyses in archival primary tumor tissue. Associations between claudin-2 expression and relapse site were assessed by univariable and multivariable Cox regression models including conventional prognostic factors. Two-sided statistical tests were used. Results: CLDN2 was significantly up-regulated (P < 0.001) in liver metastases compared to other metastatic sites. Claudin-2 protein was more frequently expressed in primary tumors from patients who subsequently developed liver metastases (P ¼ 0.02) and high expression was associated with a shorter metastasis-free interval (cohort 1, HR ¼ 1.4, 95% CI ¼ 1.0e1.9; cohort 2, HR ¼ 2.2, 95% CI ¼ 1.3e3.5). Specifically, a significantly shorter interval between primary tumor diagnosis and liver-specific recurrence was observed among patients with high levels of claudin-2 expression in the primary tumor (cohort 1, HR ¼ 2.3, 95% CI ¼ 1.3e3.9). Conclusion: These results suggest a novel role for claudin-2 as a prognostic biomarker with the ability to predict not only the likelihood of a breast cancer recurrence, but more interestingly, the liver metastatic potential of the primary tumor. a 2013 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Seventy-three TUR-T biopsies from bladder carcinoma were evaluated regarding microvessel density, defined as microvessel number (nMVD) and cross-section endothelial cell area (aMVD). A semi-automatic and a newly developed, automatic image analysis technique were applied in immunostainings, performed according to an optimized staining protocol. In 12 cases a comparison of biopsy material and the corresponding cystectomy specimen were tested, showing a good correlation in 11 of 12 cases (92%). The techniques proved reproducible for both nMVD and aMVD quantifications related to total tumour area. However, the automatic method was dependent on high immunostaining quality. Simultaneous, semi-automatic quantification of microvessels, stroma and epithelial fraction resulted in a decreased reproducibility. Quantification in ten images, selected in a descending order of MVD by subjective visual judgement, showed a poor observer capacity to estimate and rank MVD. Based on our results we propose quantification of MVD related to one tissue compartment. When staining quality is of high standard, automatic quantification is applicable, which facilitates quantification of multiple areas and thus, should minimize selection variability. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

An automatic method for quantification of images of microvessels by computing area proportions and number of objects is presented. The objects are segmented from the background using dynamic thresholding of the average component size histogram.To be able to count the objects, fragmented objects are connected, all objects are filled, and touching objects are separated using a watershed segmentation algorithm.The method is fully automatic and robust with respect to illumination and focus settings.A test set consisting of images grabbed with different focus and illumination for each field of view, was used to test the method, and the proposed method showed less variation than the intraoperator variation using manual threshold.Further, the method showed good correlation to manual object counting (r= 0.80) on an other test set.

The possibility that computerized image analysis could increase the reproducibility of grading of bladder carcinoma as compared to conventional subjective grading made by pathologists was investigated. Object, texture and graph based analysis were carried out from Feulgen stained histological tissue sections. The object based features were extracted from gray scale images, binary images obtained by thresholding the nuclei and several other images derived through image processing operations. The textural features were based on the spatial gray‐tone co‐occurrence probability matrices and the graph based features were extracted from the minimum spanning trees connecting all nuclei. The large numbers of extracted features were evaluated in relation to subjective grading and to factors related to prognosis using multivariate statistical methods and multilayer backpropagation neural networks. All the methods were originally developed and tested on material from one patient and then tested for reproducibility on entirely different patient material. The results indicate reasonably good reproducibility for the best sets of features. In addition, image analysis based grading showed almost identical correlation to mitotic density and expression of p53 protein as subjective grading. It should thus be possible to use this kind of image analysis as a prognostic tool for bladder carcinoma.

International audience; Breast cancer survival is reportedly higher in the US than in Europe. The first worldwide study (CONCORD) found wide international differences in age-standardized survival. The aim of this study is to explain these survival differences. Population-based data on stage at diagnosis, diagnostic procedures, treatment and follow-up were collected for about 20,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer aged 15-99 years during 1996-98 in 7 US states and 12 European countries. Age-standardized net survival and the excess hazard of death up to 5 years after diagnosis were estimated by jurisdiction (registry, country, European region), age and stage with flexible parametric models. Breast cancers were generally less advanced in the US than in Europe. Stage also varied less between US states than between European jurisdictions. Early, node-negative tumors were more frequent in the US (39%) than in Europe (32%), while locally advanced tumors were twice as frequent in Europe (8%), and metastatic tumors of similar frequency (5-6%). Net survival in Northern, Western and Southern Europe (81-84%) was similar to that in the US (84%), but lower in Eastern Europe (69%). For the first 3 years after diagnosis the mean excess hazard was higher in Eastern Europe than elsewhere: the difference was most marked for women aged 70-99 years, and mainly confined to women with locally advanced or metastatic tumors. Differences in breast cancer survival between Europe and the US in the late 1990s were mainly explained by lower survival in Eastern Europe, where low healthcare expenditure may have constrained the quality of treatment.

Background: The aim was to confirm a previously defined prognostic index, combining a proliferation marker, histological grade, and estrogen receptor (ER) in different subsets of primary N0/N1 chemo-naive breast cancer patients. Methods/design: In the present study, including 1,854 patients, Ki67 was used in the index (KiGE), since it is the generally accepted proliferation marker in clinical routine. The low KiGE-group was defined as histological grade 1 patients and grade 2 patients which were ER-positive and had low Ki67 expression. All other patients made up the high KiGE-group. The KiGE-index separated patients into two groups with different prognosis. In multivariate analysis, KiGE was significantly associated with disease-free survival, when adjusted for age at diagnosis, tumor size and adjuvant endocrine treatment (hazard ratio: 3.5, 95% confidence interval: 2.6-4.7, P

Pathway-specific therapy is the future of cancer management. The oncogenic phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is frequently activated in solid tumors; however, currently, no reliable test for PI3K pathway activation exists for human tumors. Taking advantage of the observation that loss of PTEN, the negative regulator of PI3K, results in robust activation of this pathway, we developed and validated a microarray gene expression signature for immunohistochemistry (IHC)-detectable PTEN loss in breast cancer (BC). The most significant signature gene was PTEN itself, indicating that PTEN mRNA levels are the primary determinant of PTEN protein levels in BC. Some PTEN IHC-positive BCs exhibited the signature of PTEN loss, which was associated to moderately reduced PTEN mRNA levels cooperating with specific types of PIK3CA mutations and/or amplification of HER2 . This demonstrates that the signature is more sensitive than PTEN IHC for identifying tumors with pathway activation. In independent data sets of breast, prostate, and bladder carcinoma, prediction of pathway activity by the signature correlated significantly to poor patient outcome. Stathmin, encoded by the signature gene STMN1 , was an accurate IHC marker of the signature and had prognostic significance in BC. Stathmin was also pathway-pharmacodynamic in vitro and in vivo . Thus, the signature or its components such as stathmin may be clinically useful tests for stratification of patients for anti-PI3K pathway therapy and monitoring therapeutic efficacy. This study indicates that aberrant PI3K pathway signaling is strongly associated with metastasis and poor survival across carcinoma types, highlighting the enormous potential impact on patient survival that pathway inhibition could achieve.

Background Today, no objective criteria exist to differentiate between individual primary tumors and intra- or intermammary dissemination respectively, in patients diagnosed with two or more synchronous breast cancers. To elucidate whether these tumors most likely arise through clonal expansion, or whether they represent individual primary tumors is of tumor biological interest and may have clinical implications. In this respect, high resolution genomic profiling may provide a more reliable approach than conventional histopathological and tumor biological factors. Methods 32 K tiling microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) was used to explore the genomic similarities among synchronous unilateral and bilateral invasive breast cancer tumor pairs, and was compared with histopathological and tumor biological parameters. Results Based on global copy number profiles and unsupervised hierarchical clustering, five of ten (p = 1.9 × 10-5) unilateral tumor pairs displayed similar genomic profiles within the pair, while only one of eight bilateral tumor pairs (p = 0.29) displayed pair-wise genomic similarities. DNA index, histological type and presence of vessel invasion correlated with the genomic analyses. Conclusion Synchronous unilateral tumor pairs are often genomically similar, while synchronous bilateral tumors most often represent individual primary tumors. However, two independent unilateral primary tumors can develop synchronously and contralateral tumor spread can occur. The presence of an intraductal component is not informative when establishing the independence of two tumors, while vessel invasion, the presence of which was found in clustering tumor pairs but not in tumor pairs that did not cluster together, supports the clustering outcome. Our data suggest that genomically similar unilateral tumor pairs may represent a more aggressive disease that requires the addition of more severe treatment modalities, and underscores the importance of evaluating the clonality of multiple tumors for optimal patient management. In summary, our findings demonstrate the importance of evaluating the properties of both tumors in order to determine the most optimal patient management.