Despite progress in AML therapy, most patients eventually relapse, even the ones with normal or favorable karyotype. Since survival is poor once relapse occurs, new genetic tools above karyotype at diagnosis are needed to predict leukemia free survival. Recently, Flt3/ITD has been reported as an independent marker for clinical outcome in most studies concerning adult AML patients. To assess the prognostic relevance of activating mutations of Flt3, pretreatment samples of 100 not-M3 AML patients, all of them subjected to an intensive chemotherapy regimen, were analyzed for Flt3/ITD; 25/100 patients had one or more Flt3-ITD. Flt3/ITD patients had higher WBC count (P = 0.005), a lower incidence of a preceding MDS (P = 0.004) and most of them had a normal karyotype. Flt3/ITD had no impact on CR achievement while karyotype remained the most powerful prognostic factor (HR 2.8 95% CI 1.2 6.3). However, post-remission outcome was significantly worsened by the presence of Flt3/ITD. Median RFS of the Flt3/ITD patients was 5 vs. 27 months compared to the patients with wild-type Flt3 (P = 0.0002); moreover, Flt3/ITD patients had a significantly poorer post-remission survival (11 vs. 38 months, P = 0.01). On multivariate analysis, the presence of Flt3-ITD significantly affected relapse free survival and post-remission survival (HR 3.1 and 2.1, respectively). Thus, post-remission outcome highly depends on Flt3 status. Flt3 mutations identify patients at high risk of relapse, who should prospectively receive, according to age, either more aggressive or alternative therapeutic approaches.
Background: Breast conserving surgery (BCS) and its following radiotherapy is an accepted therapeutic method for patients with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intraoperative electron radiotherapy on women with breast cancer (invasive lobular and ductal carcinoma). Methods: Between August 2013 and September 2017, 968 patients, who were referred to Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences with invasive breast cancer, were treated with breast-conserving surgery and radiotherapy. Of those, 426 patients received a tumor bed boost with intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT) during lumpectomy (58 patients with pure invasive lobular carcinoma, 239 patients with pure invasive ductal carcinoma, and 129 patients with other diagnoses). 542 patients received a tumor bed boost with conventional external beam radiotherapy post lumpectomy (24 patients with pure invasive lobular carcinoma, 418 patients with pure invasive ductal carcinoma, and 100 patients with other diagnoses). The patients were followed up to 49 months. A comprehensive list of clinical and pathologic features was evaluated for all patients. We retrospectively analyzed outcomes of breast cancer treated with boost intraoperative electron radiotherapy (pure ILC and IDC groups) and in other group treated with boost conventional external beam radiotherapy (pure ILC group). Results: None of the ILC patients had recurrence in the two groups. The four-year survival rate for ILC patients was 100%, but in the IDC group the survival rate was 97%. Survival analyses showed patients with IDC had a higher risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) and metastasis. Conclusions: Overall, the rates of IBTR and metastasis in the ILC boost IOERT group were significantly low. This finding suggests that IOERT technique deployment in ILC had no inferiority compared with the control group.
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