Search

Oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer (BC) is generally well responsive to endocrine therapy. Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NAET) is increasingly being used for downstaging ER-positive tumours. This study aims to analyse the effect of NAET on a well-characterised cohort of ER-positive BC with particular emphasis on receptor expression. This is a retrospective United Kingdom (UK) multicentre study of 391 patients who received NAET between October 2012 and October 2020. Detailed analyses of the paired pre- and post-NAET morphological changes and hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression were performed. The median duration of NAET was 86 days, with median survival and overall survival rates of 380 days and 93.4%, respectively. A total of 90.3% of cases achieved a pathological partial response, with a significantly higher rate of response in the HER2-low cancers. Following NAET, BC displayed some pathological changes involving the tumour stroma including central scarring and an increase in tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumour cell morphology. Significant changes associated with the duration of NAET were observed in tumour grade (30.6% of cases), with downgrading identified in 19.3% of tumours (p < 0.001). The conversion of ER status from positive to low or negative was insignificant. The conversion of progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 status to negative status was observed in 31.3% and 38.1% of cases, respectively (p < 0.001). HER2-low breast cancer decreased from 63% to 37% following NAET in the paired samples. Significant morphological and biomarker changes involving PR and HER2 expression occurred following NAET. The findings support biomarker testing on pre-treatment core biopsies and post-treatment residual carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 61-year-old woman presented with left loin pain and was found to have a long standing left-sided hydronephrosis. CT IVU showed a 2.5 cm soft tissue in the region of the distal left ureter with marked proximal dilatation (Figures 1–3). Her urine cytology, flexible cystoscopy and renal function were normal. She underwent a left laparoscopic nephroureterectomy; histology revealed periureteric metastatic adenocarcinoma with clear margin. On immunohistochemistry, oestrogen receptor, CK7, BerEp4, and CEA were strongly expressed (Figures 4 and 5). She had a history of hysterectomy 20 years earlier for ovarian and fallopian tube endometriosis. It was found that adenocarcinoma had arisen within a focus of periureteric endometriosis persisting as hydronephrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]