title: Histological features of breast cancer, highly sensitive to chemotherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To establish tailor-made therapy for breast cancer, we investigated the possibility of predicting chemotherapy sensitive cases based on pre-therapeutic histological features.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 87 breast cancer patients underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy with a paclitaxel (80 mg/m(2)/q1w, 12 courses)or an epirubicin regimen (90 mg/m(2)/q3wks, 4 courses). We investigated the chemo-sensitivity of invasive ductal carcinoma, solid-tubular carcinoma consisting of highly malignant cancer cells with many mitoses. We refer to this type of carcinoma as " chemo-sensitive carcinoma " and compared the histological therapeutic effects of chemo-sensitive and chemo-insensitive carcinomas.
  
  
  RESULTS
  1) Out of 87 patients, 20 cases (23%) showed the histological features of chemo-sensitive carcinomas on pre-therapeutic needle biopsy specimens. The remaining 67 cases (77%) were classified as chemo-insensitive carcinoma. 2) Histologically marked or complete response were observed in 50% (10/20) of chemo-sensitive carcinomas and 10% (7/67) of chemo-insensitive carcinomas (chi(2)=15.33, p=0.0001). Multivariate analysis of chemo-sensitive carcinoma, including HER2, hormone receptor and p53 status, revealed that chemo-sensitive carcinoma had a significant correlation with the histological therapeutic effects (p=0.01119). 3) Pathological complete response (pCR) was achieved in 35% (7/20) of chemo-sensitive carcinomas and 1.5% (1/67)of chemo-insensitive carcinomas (chi(2)=20.71, p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis revealed that chemo-sensitive carcinoma had a significant correlation with pCR (p=0.0091).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The histological features of chemo-sensitive carcinoma were significant predictive factors for chemotherapeutic efficacy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, The Cancer Institute of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-8550, Japan. rie.horii@jfcr.or.jp
authors.forename: Rie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Horii
authors.forename: Futoshi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Akiyama
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuura
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miki
authors.forename: Takuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwase
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000556:secondary; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000556:secondary; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D015251:Epirubicin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D015251:Epirubicin; D017239:Paclitaxel