Breast density predicts endocrine treatment outcome in the adjuvant setting

PMCID: PMC3680935See related research article by Kim et al., http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/14/4/R10

Early participant-reported symptoms as predictors of adherence to anastrozole in the International Breast Cancer Intervention Studies II

Background: Anastrozole reduces breast cancer risk in women at high risk, but implementing preventive therapy in clinical practice is difficult. Here, we evaluate adherence to anastrozole in the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS) II prevention and Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) trials, and its association with early symptoms. Patients and methods: In the prevention trial, 3864 postmenopausal women were randomized to placebo vs. anastrozole. 2980 postmenopausal women with DCIS were randomized to tamoxifen vs. anastrozole. Adherence to trial medication was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and all Pvalues were two-sided. Results: In the prevention trial, adherence was 65.8% (anastrozole (65.7%) vs. placebo (65.9%); HR=0.97 (0.87-1.09), p=0.6). Adherence was lower for those reporting arthralgia in the placebo group (p=0.02) or gynecological symptoms in the anastrozole group (P=0.003), compared with those not reporting these symptoms at 6 months. In the DCIS study, adherence was 66.7% (anastrozole (67.5%) vs. tamoxifen (65.8%); HR=1.06 (0.94-1.20), p=0.4). Hot flashes were associated with greater adherence in the anastrozole arm (p=0.02). In both studies, symptoms were mostly mild or moderately severe, and adherence decreased with increasing severity for most symptoms. Dropouts were highest in the first 1.5 years of therapy in both trials. Conclusions: In the IBIS-II prevention and DCIS trials, over two-thirds of women were adherent to therapy, with no differences by treatment groups. Participants who reported specific symptoms in the IBIS-II prevention trial had a small but significant effect on adherence, which strengthened as severity increased. Strategies to promote adherence should target the first year of preventive therapy

International study into the use of intermittent hormone therapy in the treatment of carcinoma of the prostate : A meta-analysis of 1446 patients

OBJECTIVE: To review pooled phase II data to identify features of different regimens of intermittent hormone therapy (IHT), developed to reduce the morbidity of treating metastatic prostate cancer, and which carries a theoretical advantage of delaying the onset of androgen-independent prostate cancer, (AIPC) that are associated with success, highlighting features which require exploration with prospective trials to establish the best strategies for using this treatment. METHODS: Individual data were collated on 1446 patients with adequate information, from 10 phase II studies with >50 cases, identified through Pubmed. RESULTS: Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were developed to predict treatment success with a high degree of statistical success. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir, the PSA threshold to restart treatment, and medication type and duration, were important predictors of outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The duration of biochemical remission after a period of HT is a durable early indicator of how rapidly AIPC and death will occur, and will make a useful endpoint in future trials to investigate the best ways to use IHT based on the important treatment cycling variables described above. Patients spent a mean of 39% of the time off treatment. The initial PSA level and PSA nadir allow the identification of patients with prostate cancer in whom it might be possible to avoid radical therapy.Peer reviewe

Relationships between CYP2D6 phenotype, breast cancer and hot flushes in women at high risk of breast cancer receiving prophylactic tamoxifen: results from the IBIS-I trial

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Use of the concordance index for predictors of censored survival data.

The concordance index is often used to measure how well a biomarker predicts the time to an event. Estimators of the concordance index for predictors of right-censored data are reviewed, including those based on censored pairs, inverse probability weighting and a proportional-hazards model. Predictive and prognostic biomarkers often lose strength with time, and in this case the aforementioned statistics depend on the length of follow up. A semi-parametric estimator of the concordance index is developed that accommodates converging hazards through a single parameter in a Pareto model. Concordance index estimators are assessed through simulations, which demonstrate substantial bias of classical censored-pairs and proportional-hazards model estimators. Prognostic biomarkers in a cohort of women diagnosed with breast cancer are evaluated using new and classical estimators of the concordance index.This work was funded by Cancer Research UK (grant number C569/A16891)

Anastrozole-Induced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Results From the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study II Prevention Trial

Supported in part by Cancer Research UK (C569/A5032) and the National Health and Medical Research Council Australia (GNT300755, GNT569213), and in part by AstraZeneca, who also provided anastrozole and matching placebo. This study was sponsored by Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

Participant-Reported Symptoms and Their Effect on Long-Term Adherence in the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study I (IBIS I)

Purpose: To assess the role of participant-reported symptoms on long-term adherence to preventive therapy in the United Kingdom sample of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS-I). IBIS-I was a randomized controlled trial that investigated the effectiveness of tamoxifen in reducing the risk of breast cancer among women at increased risk of the disease. Participants and Methods: Women were randomly assigned to tamoxifen versus placebo (20 mg/day; n = 4,279). After 456 exclusions, 3,823 women were included in this analysis. Adherence (< 4.5 years or ≥ 4.5 years) was calculated using data from six monthly clinical visits. Analyses were adjusted for age, Tyrer-Cuzick risk, smoking, use of hormone replacement therapy, menopausal status, baseline menopausal symptoms, and treatment. Results: Overall, 69.7% of women were adherent for at least 4.5 years (tamoxifen: 65.2% v placebo: 74.0%; P .05). In both treatment arms, we observed significant trends for lower adherence with increasing severity for all symptoms (P < .01) except headaches (P = .054). Conclusion: In the IBIS-I trial, experiencing predefined symptoms in the first 6 months reduced long-term adherence. Effects were similar between treatment arms, suggesting that women were attributing age-related symptoms to preventive therapy. Interventions were required to support symptom management

Barriers to preventive therapy for breast and other major cancers and strategies to improve uptake.

The global cancer burden continues to rise and the war on cancer can only be won if improvements in treatment go hand in hand with therapeutic cancer prevention. Despite the availability of several efficacious agents, utilisation of preventive therapy has been poor due to various barriers, such as the lack of physician and patient awareness, fear of side effects, and licensing and indemnity issues. In this review, we discuss these barriers in detail and propose strategies to overcome them. These strategies include improving physician awareness and countering prejudices by highlighting the important differences between preventive therapy and cancer treatment. The importance of the agent-biomarker-cohort (ABC) paradigm to improve effectiveness of preventive therapy cannot be overemphasised. Future research to improve therapeutic cancer prevention needs to include improvements in the prediction of benefits and harms, and improvements in the safety profile of existing agents by experimentation with dose. We also highlight the role of drug repurposing for providing new agents as well as to address the current imbalance between therapeutic and preventive research. In order to move the field of therapeutic cancer prevention forwards, engagement with policymakers to correct research imbalance as well as to remove practical obstacles to implementation is also urgently needed.This study was partially supported by Gruppo Bancario Credito Valtellinese, and Cancer Research UK programme award (C569/A16891). Smith is supported by a Cancer Research UK Postdoctoral Fellowship (C42785/A17965)