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Background: Approximately 10% of new breast cancer patients will present with overt synchronous metastatic disease. Controversy exists about the optimal local management of these patients. While several series suggest that removal of primary tumour is associated with a survival benefit, the retrospective nature of these studies raises considerable methodological challenges. We decided to evaluate the experience at our centre around the impact of surgery in patients with synchronous metastasis. Method: Case records of all patients seen with primary breast cancer and concurrent distant metastases between 2005 to 2007 were reviewed. Demographic and treatment data was collected. The study endpoints compared both overall survival and symptomatic local progression rates between patients who had breast surgery and those who did not. RESULTS: 111 patients were identified. Median follow-up 40 months (0.6-71 months). Patients were divided into two groups: those patients who underwent breast surgery (n=48; 29/48 had surgery immediate prior to metastatic diagnosis) and those that did not have surgery(n = 63). The surgical group were less likely to present with T4 tumours (20% vs 36%), N3 nodal disease (8% vs 19%) and visceral metastasis (67% vs 73%)when compared with non-surgical group. Improved overall survival (49 months vs 33 months; p=0.01) and less symptomatic local progression rates ( 15% vs 43%, p < 0.001 ) were seen in the surgical group compared to the non-surgical group. CONCLUSIONS: The optimal local management of patients with metastatic breast cancer is unknown. Despite the surgery group demonstrating an improved overall survival and symptomatic local control, this group had less aggressive disease at presentation. These results confirm the need for prospective randomized studies. E2108, an ongoing Phase III Trial, was designed to assess the effect of breast surgery in metastatic patients responding to first line systemic therapy. If excision of the primary tumour is associated with a survival benefit, then the pre-selected subgroup of patients that have responded to initial systemic therapy is the desired population to put this hypothesis to test. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-15-05.

Background Numerous studies have demonstrated that EBC survivors report more memory problems than healthy controls. However, evidence of impairment on objective tests of memory remains inconclusive. Past research has focussed exclusively on retrospective memory (remembering information from the past when asked to do so), but the complaints of EBC patients appear better described as “prospective memory” failures defined as forgetting to carry out in the future previously formed intentions. The effective performance of many day-to-day activities relies on PM and its impairment has negative consequences in everyday life. Despite its high ecological relevance, no study has evaluated PM functioning in EBC survivors. Consequently, we assessed the prevalence of PM impairment among EBC survivors in the year following completion of chemotherapy. Methods We undertook a cross sectional quantitative case-control study aiming to recruit 80 patients from the Ottawa Hospital Regional Cancer Centre and 80 matched healthy controls from the community. Patients were within 1 year of having completed a first course of chemotherapy. A standardized test of prospective memory (Memory for Intention Screening Test) was administered to both groups. Following the International Cognition and Cancer Task Force recommendation (2008), impairment was defined as a score that fell one standard deviation below the mean performance of the control group. Standardized measures of depression (CESD), anxiety (STAI) and fatigue (Fact-F) were also completed. Results Data are available on 36 patients and 18 controls. Age was well balanced between the groups (case-control mean age 54y vs. 51y, respectively, p=.204). Overall PM impairment was observed in 41% of the participants. More importantly, the rate of PM impairment was significantly higher in the EBC group than controls (53% vs 17%; p < 0.005; odds ratio = 5.588; 95% CI=1.376 to 22.7). Multivariate logistic regression showed that PM performance was unaffected by age (p=0.459), depression (p=0.358), anxiety (p=0.512) or fatigue (p=0.595). Conclusions These preliminary findings provide further support for the hypothesis that breast cancer treatment can impair cognitive processes and yield new and important insights into the type of memory problems experienced by EBC survivors. They suggest that a significant proportion of patients exhibit deficits in PM, an aspect of memory involved in effective daily functioning. Our results also suggest that emotional distress and fatigue do not contribute to PM functioning. Further studies in this area should be directed at understanding the severity and duration of PM impairment. Acknowledging and studying this vexing problem in EBC survivors will aid in developing appropriate rehabilitation strategies. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-15-01.

e11511 Background: Approximately 10% of new breast cancer patients will present with concurrent metastatic disease. Controversy exists about the optimal local management of these patients as some retrospective studies suggest a survival benefit to removing the primary. In the absence of prospective data many physicians will recommend surgery for, “local control”. We decided to assess the impact of surgery on the incidence of uncontrolled local disease in this patient population. Methods: We reviewed case records of all patients seen with primary breast cancer and concurrent distant metastases during 2007. Data was collected on patient, primary/metastasis tumour characteristics, local and systemic treatments. The primary endpoint was to compare local progression and uncontrolled local disease rates between patients who had removal of the primary tumour and those that did not. Uncontrolled disease was defined as local progression that did not respond to either local or systemic therapy. Results: 50 patients...