EGFR was overexpressed in this CRC patient population and was significantly associated with TNM (tumor-node-metastasis) stage T3. In the context of a new therapeutic strategy using EGFR-targeted therapies, although EGFR remains a controversial prognostic factor, this expression-stage association may play a crucial role in a decision to initiate an adjuvant treatment.

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physicians throughout France prospectively recruited 1289 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) patients and collected data on diagnosis, patient and tumour characteristics, and treatments. Median age was 56 years (range, 30 -84). Ductal carcinoma in situ was diagnosed by mammography in 87.6% of patients. Mastectomy, conservative surgery alone (CS) and CS with radiotherapy (CS þ RT) were performed in 30.5, 7.8 and 61.7% of patients, respectively. Thus, 89% of patients treated by CS received adjuvant RT. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) and axillary dissection (AD) were performed in 21.3 and 10.4% of patients, respectively. Hormone therapy was administered to 13.4% of the patients (80% tamoxifen). Median tumour size was 14.5 mm (6, 11 and 35 mm for CS, CS þ RT and mastectomy, respectively, Po0.0001). Nuclear grade was high in 21% of patients, intermediate in 38.5% and low in 40.5%. Excision was considered complete in 92% (CS) and 88.3% (CS þ RT) of patients. Oestrogen receptors were positive in 69.8% of assessed cases (31%). Treatment modalities varied widely according to region: mastectomy rate, 20 -37%; adjuvant RT, 84 -96%; hormone treatment, 6 -34%. Our survey on current DCIS management in France has highlighted correlations between pathological features (tumour size, margin and grade) and treatment options, with several similar variations to those observed in recent UK and US studies.

In trials of HER2-targeted agents in HER2+ MBC, PFS moderately correlates with OS at the individual level and treatment effects on PFS correlate moderately with those on overall mortality, providing only modest support for considering PFS as a surrogate. PFS does not completely substitute for OS in this setting.

#1020 Background: In breast cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is widely used in order to enable a conservative surgery. In patients treated with NAC, the use of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, which is a good predictor of the axillary nodal status in previously untreated patients, is still discussed. The aim of our study was to determine clinicopathological factors that may influence the accuracy of SLN biopsy after NAC.
 Patients and methods : Between March 2001 and December 2006, 129 patients with infiltrating breast carcinoma were studied prospectively. Preoperatively, all of them underwent NAC. At surgery, SLN biopsy followed by axillary lymph node (ALN) dissection was performed. Lymphatic mapping was done using the isotope method.
 Results : The SLN identification rate was 93.8% (121/129). Fifty-six out of the 121 sucessfully mapped patients had positive ALN. Eight out of these 56 patients had tumor-free SLN (false-negative rate of 14.3%). The false-negative rate was correlated with larger tumor size (T1-T2 versus T3; p=0.045) and positive clinical nodal status (N0 versus N1-N2; p=0.003) before NAC. In particular, the false-negative rate was 0% (0/29) in N0 patients and 29.6% (8/27) in N1-N2 patients. Clinical and pathological responses to NAC did not influence the accuracy of SLN biopsy.
 Conclusion : Our results show that clinical nodal status is the main clinicopathological factor influencing the false-negative rate of SLN biopsy after NAC for breast cancer. SLN biopsy after NAC can predict the ALN status with a high accuracy in patients who are clinically lymph node negative at presentation. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 1020.