Background: In light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, cancer centres in the United Kingdom and Europe re-organised their services at an unprecedented pace, and many patients with cancer have had their treatments severely disrupted. Patients with cancer were considered at high risk on sparse evidence, and despite a small number of emerging observational studies, the true incidence and impact of COVID-19 in the 'at-risk' population of patients with cancer is yet to be defined. Methods: Epidemiological and clinical data were collected prospectively for patients attending the Royal Marsden Hospital and three network hospitals between March 1st and April 30th 2020 that were confirmed to have Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) infection. Significance of clinical and pathological characteristics was assessed using the Fisher's exact test and Wilcoxon rank sum test, whilst univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to further assess risk. The number of patients attending in March/ April 2020 for face-to-face attendances was also extracted. Findings: During the 2-month study period, 867 of 13,489 (6.4%) patients met the criteria leading to swab testing. Of the total at-risk population, only 113 of 13,489 (0.84%) were swab positive, 101 of 13,489 (0.75%) required hospital admission and 29 of 13,489 (0.21%) died of

Background: CT and bone scintigraphy have limitations in evaluating systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) response in bone metastases from metastatic breast cancer (MBC).Purpose: To evaluate whether whole-body MRI enables identification of progressive disease (PD) earlier than CT and bone scintigraphy in bone-only MBC. Materials and Methods:This prospective study evaluated participants with bone-only MBC between May 2016 and January 2019 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03266744). Participants were enrolled at initiation of first or subsequent SACT based on standard CT and bone scintigraphy imaging. Baseline whole-body MRI was performed within 2 weeks of entry; those with extraosseous disease were excluded. CT and whole-body MRI were performed every 12 weeks until definitive PD was evident with one or both modalities. In case of PD, bone scintigraphy was used to assess for bone disease progression. Radiologists independently interpreted images from CT, whole-body MRI, or bone scintigraphy and were blinded to results with the other modalities. Systematic differences in performance between modalities were analyzed by using the McNemar test.Results: Forty-five participants (mean age, 60 years 6 13 [standard deviation]; all women) were evaluated. Median time on study was 36 weeks (range, 1-120 weeks). Two participants were excluded because of unequivocal evidence of liver metastases at baseline whole-body MRI, two participants were excluded because they had clinical progression before imaging showed PD, and one participant was lost to follow-up. Of the 33 participants with PD at imaging, 67% (22 participants) had PD evident at whole-body MRI only and 33% (11 participants) had PD at CT and whole-body MRI concurrently; none had PD at CT only (P , .001, McNemar test). There was only slight agreement between whole-body MRI and CT (Cohen k, 0.15). PD at bone scintigraphy was reported in 50% of participants (13 of 26) with bone progression at CT and/or whole-body MRI (P , .001, McNemar test). Conclusion:Whole-body MRI enabled identification of progressive disease before CT in most participants with bone-only metastatic breast cancer. Progressive disease at bone scintigraphy was evident in only half of participants with bone progression at whole-body MRI.

En bloc sternal resection for parasternal recurrence in breast cancer involves extensive surgery but in our experience can be performed with very low mortality and morbidity. In selected patients it provides good long term local control, relief of pain and improved cosmesis.

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ObjectivesWe conducted a retrospective review of patients with extrapulmonary small cell carcinomas (EPSCCs) to explore the distribution, treatments, patterns of relapse and outcomes by primary site.SettingWe have reviewed the outcomes of one of the largest data sets of consecutive patients with EPSCC identified from two major cancer centres.ParticipantsConsecutive patients with a histopathological diagnosis of EPSCC from the two institutions were retrospectively identified.Primary and secondary outcome measuresOutcomes were evaluated including stage at presentation, treatments given, sites of relapse, time to distant relapse, progression-free survival and overall survival (OS).ResultsFrom a total 159 patients, 114 received first-line chemotherapy, 80.5% being platinum-based. Response rate was 48%. Commonest primary sites were genitourinary and gynaecological. 44% of patients presented with metastatic disease. 55.9% relapsed with liver the commonest site, whereas only 2.5% developed brain metastases. Median OS was 13.4 months for all patients, 7.6 months and 19.5 months for those with metastatic and non-metastatic disease, respectively. Gynaecological and head and neck patients had significantly better OS compared to gastrointestinal patients.ConclusionsEPSCCs demonstrate high response rates to chemotherapy and high rates of distant metastases. Primary sites may influence prognosis, and survival is optimal with a radical strategy. Brain metastases are rare and we therefore do not recommend prophylactic cranial irradiation.

Ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) is an antibody-drug conjugate that does not cross an intact blood-brain barrier. In the EMILIA trial of T-DM1 vs capecitabine/lapatinib for HER2 positive advanced breast cancer, all patients had baseline brain imaging, and 9/450 (2%) of patients with negative baseline imaging developed new brain disease during T-DM1. We assessed the frequency of brain progression in clinical practice, without routine baseline imaging. We undertook a retrospective study of all patients treated with T-DM1 at the Royal Marsden Hospital from 2011 to 2016. Data collected included baseline characteristics, previous treatment for advanced breast cancer, sites of metastatic disease, duration of T-DM1, sites of progression, and treatment of CNS progression. Fifty-five patients were identified who had received a median of two prior lines of treatment (range 0-5). All were HER2 positive; 45 patients had IHC 3+ tumors and 10 were ISH positive. Patients received a median of 12 cycles of T-DM1 (range 1-34), and six remain on treatment at the time of analysis. Before commencing T-DM1, 16/55 (29%) had known brain metastases (treated with whole brain [9] stereotactic radiotherapy [6] or both [1]). Brain was the first site of progression in 56% (9/16) patients, with a median time to brain progression of 9.9 months (95% CI 3.9-12.2). In patients without known baseline brain metastases, 17.9% (7/39) developed new symptomatic brain disease during T-DM1, after a median of 7.5 months (95%CI 3.8-9.6). Brain progression was isolated, with control of extra-cranial disease in 4/7 patients. Only one patient was suitable for stereotactic radiotherapy. Median time to extra-cranial progression in all patients was 11.5 months (95% CI 9.1-17.7), and median OS in all patients was 17.8 months (95% CI 14.2-22). In patients not screened for brain metastases at baseline, the brain was the first site of progression in a significant proportion. Baseline brain imaging may have a role in standard practice for patients commencing T-DM1 therapy.