Objective To assess the accuracy of preoperative ultrasound examination for predicting lymph‐node (LN) status in patients with vulvar cancer. Methods This was a single‐institution retrospective observational study of all women with a histological diagnosis of vulvar cancer triaged to inguinal surgery within 30 days following ultrasound evaluation between December 2010 and January 2016. For each groin examined, 15 morphological and dimensional sonographic parameters associated with suspicion for LN involvement were examined. A morphometric ultrasound pattern (MUP) was expressed for each groin, classifying the inguinal LN status into five groups (normal; reactive‐but‐negative; minimally suspicious/probably negative; moderately suspicious; and highly suspicious/positive) according to subjective judgment, followed by stratification as positive or negative for metastasis according to morphometric binomial assessment (MBA). In cases of positive MBA, fine‐needle aspiration cytology was performed. Combining the information obtained from MUP and cytologic results, a binomial final overall assessment (FOA) was assigned for each groin. The final histology was considered as the reference standard. Comparison was performed between patients with negative and those with positive LNs on histology, and receiver‐operating‐characteristics curves were generated for statistically significant variables on univariate analysis, to evaluate their diagnostic ability to predict negative LN status. Results Of 144 patients included in the analysis, 87 had negative inguinal LNs and 57 had positive LNs on histology. A total of 256 groins were analyzed, of which 171 were negative and 85 showed at least one metastatic LN on histology. The following parameters showed the greatest accuracy, with the best balance between specificity and sensitivity, in predicting negative LN status: cortical (C) thickness of the dominant LN (cut‐off, 2.5 mm; sensitivity, 90.0%; specificity, 77.9%); short‐axis (S) length of the dominant LN (cut‐off, 8.4 mm; sensitivity, 63.9%; specificity, 90.6%); C/medulla (M) thickness ratio of the dominant LN (cut‐off, 1.2 mm; sensitivity, 70.4%; specificity, 91.5%), the combination of S length and C/M thickness ratio (sensitivity, 88.9%; specificity, 82.4%); and the FOA analysis (sensitivity, 85.9%; specificity, 84.2%). Conclusions Preoperative ultrasound assessment, with or without the addition of cytology, has a high accuracy in assessing inguinal LN status in patients with vulvar cancer. In particular, the combination of two ultrasound parameters (S length and C/M thickness ratio) provided the greatest accuracy in discriminating between negative and positive LNs. Copyright © 2019 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Background CDK4/6-inhibitors (CDK4/6i)+endocrine therapy (ET) prolonged progression-free survival as first/second-line therapy for hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) prognosis. Given the recent publication of overall survival (OS) data for the three CDK4/6i, we performed a meta-analysis to identify a more precise and reliable benefit from such treatments in specific clinical subgroups. Methods We conducted a systematic literature search to select all available phase II/III randomized clinical trials of CDK4/6i+ET reporting OS data in first/second-line therapy of HR+/HER2-negative pre/postmenopausal MBC. A random effect model was applied for the analyses. Heterogeneity was assessed with I2 statistic. Subgroup analysis were performed to explore the effect of study-level factors. The project was registered in the Open Science Framework database (doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/TNZQP). Results Six studies were included in our analyses (3,421 patients). A clear OS benefit was observed in patients without (HR:0.68, 95%CI:0.54–0.85, I2=0.0%) and with visceral involvement (HR:0.76, 95%CI:0.65–0.89, I2=0.0%), with ≥3 metastatic sites (HR:0.75, 95%CI:0.60–0.94, I2=11.6%), in endocrine resistant (HR:0.79, 95%CI:0.67-0.93, I2=14.4%). and sensitive subset (HR:0.73, 95%CI:0.61-0.88, I2=0.0%), for age <65 (HR:0.80, 95%CI:0.67-0.95, I2=0.0%) and ≥65 years (HR:0.71, 95%CI:0.53-0.95, I2=44.4%), in postmenopausal (HR:0.75, 95%CI:0.66-0.86, I2=0.0%) and pre/perimenopausal setting (HR:0.76, 95%CI:0.60-0.96, I2=0.0%), as well as in CT-naïve patients (HR:0.72, 95%CI:0.55–0.93, I2=0.0%). Conclusions CDK4/6i+ET combinations compared to ET alone improve OS independent of age, menopausal status, endocrine sensitiveness and visceral involvement, and should be preferred as upfront therapy instead of endocrine monotherapy.

The characterization of tumor biology and consequently the identification of prognostic and predictive biomarkers represent key issues for the translational research in breast cancer (BC). Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN), the negative regulator of the proto-oncogenic phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway, constitutes one of the most intriguing tumor suppressor genes involved in a series of biological processes, such as cell growth and survival, cellular migration and genomic stability. Loss of PTEN activity, due to protein, genetic or epigenetic alterations, was reported in up to almost half of BC cases. Recently, besides the role of PTEN in the pathogenesis of BC, investigated for over 20 years after the PTEN discovery, several retrospective and prospective translational studies, in the early and advanced setting, reported controversial results regarding the association between PTEN functional status and both clinical outcome and response to various BC treatments. This review explores the pre-clinical and clinical role of PTEN in BC with regard to the potential association of PTEN with prognosis and treatment response or resistance, underlying the complexity of the interpretation of available results and suggesting potential future perspectives.

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Hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer is the most common breast cancer subtype, and endocrine therapy (ET) remains its therapeutic backbone. Although anti-estrogen therapies are usually effective initially, approximately 50% of HR+ patients develop resistance to ET within their lifetime, ultimately leading to disease recurrence and limited clinical benefit. The recent addition of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) and CDK6 inhibitors (palbociclib, ribociclib, abemaciclib) to ET have remarkably improved the outcome of patients with HR+ advanced breast cancer (ABC) compared with anti-estrogens alone, by targeting the cell-cycle machinery and overcoming some aspects of endocrine resistance. However, which patients are the better candidates for these drugs, which are the main characteristics for a better selection of patients or if there are predictive biomarkers of response, is still unknown. In this review we reported the mechanism of action of CDK4/6 inhibitors as well as their potential mechanism of resistance, their implications in clinical practice and the forthcoming strategies to enhance their efficacy in improving survival and quality of life of patients affected with HR+, HER2−, ABC.