Background
The potential risk and association of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) with human remains controversial as it has been reported to be both positive and negative in human breast cancer and blood samples. Therefore, establishing the presence of BLV in comprehensive human clinical samples in different geographical locations is essential.
Result
In this study, we examined the presence of BLV proviral DNA in human blood and breast cancer tissue specimens from Japan. PCR analysis of BLV provirus in 97 Japanese human blood samples and 23 breast cancer tissues showed negative result for all samples tested using long-fragment PCR and highly-sensitive short-fragment PCR amplification. No IgG and IgM antibodies were detected in any of the 97 human serum samples using BLV gp51 and p24 indirect ELISA test. Western blot analysis also showed negative result for IgG and IgM antibodies in all tested human serum samples.
Conclusion
Our results indicate that Japanese human specimens including 97 human blood, 23 breast cancer tissues, and 97 serum samples were negative for BLV.
Background: Surgical treatment of breast cancer patients aged 85 years or older is still controversial. Methods: A series of surgically treated breast cancer patients aged 85 years or older was evaluated. The clinicopathological features and outcomes of these patients were compared with the features and outcomes of breast cancer patients in the same age group who were managed without surgery. Results: A total of 45 patients (75%) received surgical treatment, and 15 patients (25%) were managed without surgery. The differences between ages, tumor status, nodal status, stage and immunopathological status of the patients undergoing and not undergoing surgery were not significant. Significantly more patients treated by surgery underwent systemic treatment than patients managed without surgery (P=0.004). The three-year disease-free survival rate of patients treated by surgery was higher than that of the patients managed without surgery (90.6% vs 67.5%, respectively; P<0.001).Conclusions: The surgical treatment of breast cancer patients aged 85 years or older is warranted. This outcome was achieved with the use of hormonal therapy.
Background: Eribulin therapy has been reported to prolong overall survival (OS) but not progressionfree survival, probably because it prevents the development of metastatic lesions; however, this effecthas not yet been confirmed.
Methods:We reviewed the medical charts of 50 patients with metastatic breast cancer who underwent eribulin monotherapy at our hospital between 2014 and 2019. Patients were divided into two groups, namely, those who discontinued eribulin because of disease progression due to development of new lesions (NL group) and those who discontinued eribulin for other reasons, such as lesion growth and unacceptable side effects (non-NL group). Survival times were estimated for both groups and we investigated if eribulin-mediated suppression of new metastasis increased OS.
Results:Median OS for all patients, from eribulin initiation, was 14.4 months (range 1.2-60.1), whereas it was 4.6 months (range 1.7-24.7) in the NL group and 16.8 months (range 1.2-60.1) in the non-NL group. OS was significantly poorer in the NL group than in the non-NL group (p < 0.05).
Conclusion:Eribulin monotherapy-mediated suppression of new metastatic lesions results in a better prognosis in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
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