Person:

Smith, Barbara

Background: In women 70 years of age or older who have early breast cancer, it is unclear whether lumpectomy plus tamoxifen is as effective as lumpectomy followed by tamoxifen plus radiation therapy. Methods: Between July 1994 and February 1999, we randomly assigned 636 women who were 70 years of age or older and who had clinical stage I (T1N0M0 according to the tumor– node–metastasis classification), estrogen-receptor–positive breast carcinoma treated by lumpectomy to receive tamoxifen plus radiation therapy (317 women) or tamoxifen alone (319 women). Primary end points were the time to local or regional recurrence, the frequency of mastectomy for recurrence, breast-cancer–specific survival, the time to distant metastasis, and overall survival. Results: The only significant difference between the two groups was in the rate of local or regional recurrence at five years (1 percent in the group given tamoxifen plus irradiation and 4 percent in the group given tamoxifen alone, P<0.001). There were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to the rates of mastectomy for local recurrence, distant metastases, or five-year rates of overall survival (87 percent in the group given tamoxifen plus irradiation and 86 percent in the tamoxifen group, P=0.94). Assessment by physicians and patients of cosmetic results and adverse events uniformly rated tamoxifen plus irradiation inferior to tamoxifen alone. Conclusions: Lumpectomy plus adjuvant therapy with tamoxifen alone is a realistic choice for the treatment of women 70 years of age or older who have early, estrogen-receptor–positive breast cancer.

Women diagnosed with or at high risk for breast cancer increasingly choose prophylactic mastectomy. It is unknown if adding sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) to prophylactic mastectomy increases the risk of lymphedema. We sought to determine the risk of lymphedema after mastectomy with and without nodal evaluation. 117 patients who underwent bilateral mastectomy were prospectively screened for lymphedema. Perometer arm measurements were used to calculate weight-adjusted arm volume change at each follow-up. Of 234 mastectomies performed, 15.8 % (37/234) had no axillary surgery, 63.7 % (149/234) had SLNB, and 20.5 % (48/234) had axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). 88.0 % (103/117) of patients completed the LEFT-BC questionnaire evaluating symptoms associated with lymphedema. Multivariate analysis was used to assess clinical characteristics associated with increased weight-adjusted arm volume and patient-reported lymphedema symptoms. SLNB at the time of mastectomy did not result in an increased mean weight-adjusted arm volume compared to mastectomy without axillary surgery (p = 0.76). Mastectomy with ALND was associated with a significantly greater mean weight-adjusted arm volume change compared to mastectomy with SLNB (p < 0.0001) and without axillary surgery (p = 0.0028). Patients who underwent mastectomy with ALND more commonly reported symptoms associated with lymphedema compared to those with SLNB or no axillary surgery (p < 0.0001). Patients who underwent mastectomy with SLNB or no axillary surgery reported similar lymphedema symptoms. Addition of SLNB to mastectomy is not associated with a significant increase in measured or self-reported lymphedema rates. Therefore, SLNB may be performed at the time of prophylactic mastectomy without an increased risk of lymphedema.

Objective: The opportunity to integrate clinical decision support systems into clinical practice is limited due to the lack of structured, machine readable data in the current format of the electronic health record. Natural language processing has been designed to convert free text into machine readable data. The aim of the current study was to ascertain the feasibility of using natural language processing to extract clinical information from >76,000 breast pathology reports. Approach and Procedure: Breast pathology reports from three institutions were analyzed using natural language processing software (Clearforest, Waltham, MA) to extract information on a variety of pathologic diagnoses of interest. Data tables were created from the extracted information according to date of surgery, side of surgery, and medical record number. The variety of ways in which each diagnosis could be represented was recorded, as a means of demonstrating the complexity of machine interpretation of free text. Results: There was widespread variation in how pathologists reported common pathologic diagnoses. We report, for example, 124 ways of saying invasive ductal carcinoma and 95 ways of saying invasive lobular carcinoma. There were >4000 ways of saying invasive ductal carcinoma was not present. Natural language processor sensitivity and specificity were 99.1% and 96.5% when compared to expert human coders. Conclusion: We have demonstrated how a large body of free text medical information such as seen in breast pathology reports, can be converted to a machine readable format using natural language processing, and described the inherent complexities of the task.

Purpose: To determine whether there is a benefit to adjuvant radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery and tamoxifen in women age 70 years with early-stage breast cancer. Patients and Methods: Between July 1994 and February 1999, 636 women (age 70 years) who had clinical stage I (T1N0M0 according to TNM classification) estrogen receptor (ER) –positive breast carcinoma treated by lumpectomy were randomly assigned to receive tamoxifen plus radiation therapy (TamRT; 317 women) or tamoxifen alone (Tam; 319 women). Primary end points were time to local or regional recurrence, frequency of mastectomy, breast cancer–specific survival, time to distant metastasis, and overall survival (OS). Results: Median follow-up for treated patients is now 12.6 years. At 10 years, 98% of patients receiving TamRT (95% CI, 96% to 99%) compared with 90% of those receiving Tam (95% CI, 85% to 93%) were free from local and regional recurrences. There were no significant differences in time to mastectomy, time to distant metastasis, breast cancer–specific survival, or OS between the two groups. Ten-year OS was 67% (95% CI, 62% to 72%) and 66% (95% CI, 61% to 71%) in the TamRT and Tam groups, respectively. Conclusion: With long-term follow-up, the previously observed small improvement in locoregional recurrence with the addition of radiation therapy remains. However, this does not translate into an advantage in OS, distant disease-free survival, or breast preservation. Depending on the value placed on local recurrence, Tam remains a reasonable option for women age 70 years with ER-positive early-stage breast cancer.