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Biomedical subjects

D Rosner

Publications and source records attributed to D Rosner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Should all patients with node-negative breast cancer receive adjuvant therapy? Identifying additional subsets of low-risk patients who are highly curable by surgery alone.

This study, which used combined first-generation prognostic factors (tumor size, histologic differentiation, and age) on 408 patients with axillary node-negative (ANN) breast cancer treated by surgery alone without systemic adjuvant therapy between 1976 and 1987 at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, discerned four subsets of low-risk patients with a 7-year relapse rate of 6% or better. The first subset consisted of 48 patients (12% of the population) with tumors 1 cm or less in diameter that were well or moderately differentiated. These patients had a disease-free rate (DFR) of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI], 94% to 100%). The second subset consisted of 35 patients (9% of the population) with tumors less than or equal to 1 cm that were poorly differentiated or anaplastic. These patients older than 50 years of age had a DFR of 97% (95% CI, 91% to 100%). The third subset consisted of 36 patients (9% of the population) with tumors 1.1 to 2 cm that were well or moderately differentiated. These patients were older than 50 years of age and had a DFR of 94% (95% CI, 85% to 100%). The fourth subset consisted of 36 patients with ductal carcinoma in situ with microscopic invasion. These patients had a DFR of 100% (95% CI, 87% to 100%). Twenty-two of these patients, not in the other subsets mentioned, comprised 5% of the total population. These patients at low risk of recurrence, who comprise one third of the entire node-negative population, are highly curable by local therapy alone and may be spared the risks and costs of routine adjuvant systemic therapy (AST). Patients with tumors larger than 2 cm (152 patients; 37% of the population) are at high risk of recurrence (26% with a DFR of 74% [95% CI, 64% to 84%]) and should routinely receive systemic adjuvant therapy. Patients with tumors up to 2 cm who are not in the low-risk groups fall in a gray area (recurrence, 15% to 21%; DFR, 79% to 85%). For these groups, combining second-generation prognostic factors such as DNA ploidy, S-phase fraction, or cathepsin D should give the physician additional information to aid in making decisions regarding adjuvant therapy.

Adult

Factors affecting recurrence in lumpectomy without irradiation for breast cancer.

Between 1980 and 1988, 122 women with operable invasive breast cancers underwent wide excision and axillary dissection without subsequent irradiation. During the follow-up period of 1 to 8 years (median, 4 years), recurrences were observed in 23 patients (19%), 22 occurring in the breast and one in the axilla. This is a significant rate of recurrence and supports the need for breast irradiation after conservative surgery. The incidence of recurrence in the breast did not appear to be related to the presence or absence of axillary nodal metastasis. No recurrences were noted in 20 patients whose primary tumors were smaller than 1 cm. The incidence of recurrence was directly correlated to the increasing size of the tumor, but it also appeared to decrease with advancing age. In 31 patients over 70 years of age, only one (3%) recurrence was observed. If these early findings are confirmed, it is likely that patients with tumors smaller than 1 cm or patients over 70 years of age may be spared breast irradiation after wide excision.

Adult

Ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion. A curable entity using surgery alone without need for adjuvant therapy.

Of 408 negative axillary node (NAN) patients surgically treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY, 1976 through 1987), 36 (8.8%) presented with ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion (DCISM). In more than 50% of the patients (20/36) the disease was detected solely by mammography (microcalcifications and/or radiological density less than 1.5 cm). Thirty-three patients underwent modified radical mastectomy; three had wide excision +/- axillary dissection. Residual disease after excisional biopsy was found in 22 of 33 mastectomy specimens (67%): 11 (33%) pure ductal carcinoma in situ, five (15%) DCISM, and six (18%) frankly invasive. Of the 22 incidents of residual disease, 50% (11) were multicentric (one third of all specimens). These findings imply a high likelihood of residual cancer after excisional biopsy in these patients. All patients were free of disease for a mean follow-up of 57 months (range, 16 to 137). These findings indicate that DCISM is an entirely curable disease when treated by mastectomy alone, without the need for adjuvant therapy, regardless of the status of other prognostic factors such as tumor size, histologic differentiation, age, or steroid receptor status.

Adult

Seeking common ground: a history of labor and Blue Cross.

In recent years, voluntary health insurance costs have become a major source of friction in labor-management negotiations. What was once a "fringe" has led to job actions, strikes, and intensive bargaining. We examine the history of labor's participation in New York Blue Cross from the 1930s to the recent past and show that labor's participation in the plan was crucial to Blue Cross's success in the plan's early decades. By the late 1950s, serious tensions developed over rate increases and the participation of labor in Blue Cross governance. Ultimately, the issue was one of the control over what was provided by the plans and who would pay for the costs of care. We posit that labor was never able to achieve an important role in the control of the third-party payer, and in the antilabor environment of the 1980s this proved detrimental to labor's interests.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Plans

Node-negative minimal invasive breast cancer patients are not candidates for routine systemic adjuvant therapy.

Ninety-one patients with invasive breast carcinoma with a diameter of 1 cm or less and histologically negative axillary nodes were treated between 1976 and 1986 with radical surgery alone (67), or with conservative surgery (24). Cases were analyzed in relation to tumor size, steroid receptors, histologic and nuclear grade, age, and type of therapy, none of which showed a significant relationship to relapse or survival. There were 22% well-differentiated, 20% moderately differentiated, and 56% poorly differentiated or anaplastic tumors. Estimated disease-free survival (DFS) for this group was 91% at 7 years, and overall survival 96% for the same period. There were five relapses (all among poorly differentiated tumors) and three deaths unrelated to breast cancer. With the three deaths censored, 100% of the well-differentiated and moderately differentiated tumors were disease-free at 7 years versus 91% for poorly differentiated and anaplastic tumors (P = 0.076). These data suggest that node-negative patients with minimal invasive breast cancer are highly curable by primary surgical therapy alone, and the authors believe that these patients are not appropriate candidates for adjuvant therapy until such time as subgroups at high risk of recurrence can be identified.

Adult

Treatment options and recurrence potential for cystosarcoma phyllodes.

The surgical treatment and outcome of 31 women with a pathologic diagnosis of cystosarcoma phyllodes at Roswell Park Memorial Institute were reviewed. Surgical excision was performed upon 20 patients with a mean tumor size of 4.5 centimeters (range of 1.0 to 9.0 centimeters). Mastectomy was performed initially upon 11 patients with a mean tumor size of 15 centimeters (range of 3 to 40 centimeters). Local recurrence was seen in five patients treated by excision and one patient treated by mastectomy. All patients retreated by repeat excisions were controlled; one patient retreated with mastectomy died with local recurrence and distant disease. Routine axillary dissections were not performed. Involvement of the axillary lymph nodes occurred in one patient and was associated with advanced systemic disease. Local recurrences did not imply associated systemic spread and were controlled in five of six patients by repeat excision or mastectomy. Although the benign behavior of this tumor is commonly emphasized, four of the patients we studied died of malignant spread of cystosarcoma phyllodes.

Adolescent

Bone scintigrams: their clinical usefulness in patients with breast carcinoma.

A comparison of bone scintigrams and roentgenographic skeletal surveys, obtained on 170 patients with breast carcinoma, was made to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of these techniques in detecting metastatic bone lesions. The bone scans were abnormal in 81 patients, while the roentgenograms were abnormal in only 51. In 34 of the 81 (42%) patients with abnormal bone scans, there was no radiographic evidence of a benign lesion to account for the increased ratiotracer uptake; and the abnormalities noted on the bone scans were proven to be bony metastases on follow-up examinations. In the remaining 47 patients with positive bone scintigrams, both the scans and the roentgenograms were abnormal; however, in 23 patients the bone scan demonstrated significantly more lesions than what the roentgenograms had revealed. This study confirms that bone scan is superior to roentgen surveys in detecting skeletal metastases in patients with breast carcinoma. It was noted that the metastatic lesions can be visualized on the scans earlier than they are apparent on the X-rays by a mean interval of 4 months.

Adult

Potentiating role of previously administered agents in the combination chemotherapy of breast cancer.

91 women with metastatic breast cancer, who received prior CTX-5FU or CTX-5FU-PRD, were treated in 3 consecutive clinical trials with either CTX-5FU-PRD-MTX-VCR, MTX-VCR, or MTX-VCR-PRD in order to elucidate whether the effectiveness of 5 drugs was due only to the newly added drugs (MTX-VCR +/- PRD) or whether the previously used drugs (CTX-5FU) were necessary as potentiating agents. There were 17 or 39 responders (43%) in the 5-drug group, 3 of 25 (12%) in the MTX-VCR group and 3 of 27 (11%) in the MTX-VCR-PRD group. The survival in the group treated with 5 drugs was significantly longer. Our results show that CTX-5FU-PRD-MTX-VCR was significantly more effective than MTX-VCR or MTX-VCR-PRD used alone after the patient had already had CTX-5FU +/- PRD. Thus, the previously used drugs (CTX-5FU) seemed to improve the response to the new agents (MTX-VCR +/- PRD) by a potentiating action in the subsequent combination. It is concluded that the exploitation of this enhancing effect represents a significant improvement in the treatment options now available.

Adult

Differential utilization of proteins in saliva from caries-active and caries-free subjects as growth substrates by plaque-forming streptococci.

Mixed or parotid saliva from caries-active individuals consistently supported better growth of Streptococcus mutans (type c) than that from caries-free individuals. Electrophoretic studies revealed that certain proteins in caries-active salivas were susceptible to microbial attack, but similar proteins in caries-free salivas were refractory.

Adult

Visualization of breast lesions with an advanced ultrasonic device: results of a pilot study.

A pilot study is described in which a new design of a sensitive ultrasonic device was used to visualize breast lesions in nine patients. The results were in general accord with clinical, histologic, and x-ray examinations, although ultrasound was superior to x-ray mammography in the visualization of discrete cysts in breasts having a "dense" background. As the device provides an indication of the capabilities of ultrasonic equipment which will be generally available within the next two years, projections are made on the impact of this equipment on the earlier diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, together with a discussion of the negligible radiation bio-hazards posed by devices of this type, in the light of present knowledge.

Adenocarcinoma