Robotic surgery was equal to open surgery except with respect to operative time and was superior to endoscopic surgery in Off-Tg levels presenting completeness of the operation in thyroid cancer surgery. Because it has excellent cosmetic results and various technical advantages, it should be considered in young, low-risk patients with thyroid carcinoma less than 1 cm.

Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare, heterogeneous breast cancer characterized by admixture of adenocarcinoma with metaplastic elements, low hormone receptor expression, and poor outcomes. The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 47 MBC patients and 1,346 invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) patients. Two hundred eighteen of the IDC patients were triple-negative (TN-IDC) for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (ER-/PR-/HER2-). Patients were surgically treated at the Samsung Medical Center between 2005 and 2009. The MBC patients presented with a larger tumor size, lower lymph node involvement, higher histological and nuclear grades, higher triple negativity (ER-/PR-/HER2-) and higher p53, CK5/6, and EGFR expressions compared with those of the IDC group. However, there were no significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics between MBC and TN-IDC. During the follow-up period (median duration of 30.3 months, range 2.6-56.3 months), seven (14.9%) MBC patients, and 98 (7.1%) IDC patients had disease recurrence. The three-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate was 78.1% in the MBC group and 91.1% in IDC group (P < 0.001). The three-year DFS rate was not significantly different between the MBC and TN-IDC groups (78.1 vs. 84.9%, P = 0.114). However, in patients with lymph node metastasis who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy, the three-year DFS rate was 44.4% in the MBC group and 72.5% in the TN-IDC group (P = 0.025). The authors found that MBC had a poorer clinical outcome than did IDC. In breast cancer patients with nodal metastasis, MBC had a poorer prognosis than did TN-IDC, despite adjuvant chemotherapy.

PurposePostoperative radiotherapy for breast cancer has a number of associated complications. This study examined whether supervised moderate-intensity exercise could mitigate the complications that occur during radiotherapy.Patients and MethodsForty women were randomized before radiotherapy after various operations for breast cancer. Seventeen patients who were assigned to the exercise group performed supervised moderate-intensity exercise therapy for 50 min 3 times per week for 5 weeks. Twenty-three patients in the control group were asked to perform self-shoulder stretching exercise. The World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), brief fatigue inventory (BFI), range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder, and pain score were assessed before and after radiotherapy.ResultsThere were no significant differences noted at baseline between groups. In the exercise group, there was an increase in the WHOQOL-BREF and shoulder ROM and decrease in BFI and pain score after radiotherapy. On the other hand, patients in the control group showed decrease in the WHOQOL-BREF and shoulder ROM and increase in BFI and pain score after radiotherapy. There were statistically significant differences in the changes in the WHOQOL, BFI, shoulder ROM, and pain score between the groups.ConclusionPatients receiving radiotherapy for breast cancer may benefit in physical and psychological aspects from supervised moderate-intensity exercise therapy.