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Biomedical subjects

R R Millis

Publications and source records attributed to R R Millis.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Survival following local skin recurrence after mastectomy.

Seventy-three patients with breast cancer, treated by radical mastectomy, who subsequently developed a local skin recurrence without clinical evidence of disseminated disease, have been reviewed. There were significant differences between the survival of patients with single and multiple recurrences. Only 10 per cent of those with multiple lesions survived 5 years, and none was alive at 10 years, whereas 42 per cent of those with single lesions survived 5 years and 22 per cent were alive and well at 10 years' postrecurrence. Adequate local treatment of a single skin nodule may enable a subset of patients to survive without subsequent development of breast cancer metastases.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1985

Family history and bilateral primary breast cancer.

The prevalence of a family history of breast cancer was established in 54 women with bilateral primary breast cancer and 208 women with unilateral disease. Women with bilateral disease had significantly greater prevalence of family history than women with unilateral breast cancer (P less than 0.01). Compared with the unilateral cancers, a significantly greater proportion of bilateral cancers had first degree affected relatives (P less than 0.05). Moreover the affected relatives of probands with bilateral disease showed a significantly higher prevalence of bilateral breast cancer compared with the relatives of women with unilateral disease (P = 0.04). The findings suggested that bilateral disease was a characteristic of familial breast cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Which patients are cured of breast cancer?

The clinical and pathological features of 51 patients who survived for more than 20 years after diagnosis of cancer of the breast were compared with those of 176 contemporaries who died within 20 years after diagnosis. Of those who survived, 18 (35%) had had pathologically affected axillary nodes compared with at least 86 (49%) of those who died. Also, 11 (21%) of the survivors had had small tumours compared with 10 (6%) of those who died. Pathological review of tumours in the survivors showed 40 (78%) to have been infiltrating ductal carcinomas, of which 13 (32%) were grade 3 lesions. These differences between the two groups were largely due to the prognostic value of these variables in the first five years after diagnosis. After a patient had survived five years the major prognostic variables were of little value in the prediction of which patients would be cured of breast cancer. Advanced age, which was of little prognostic value in the first five years after diagnosis, was of significant prognostic value in the longer term, partly due to the steep age gradient for mortality from other diseases. Nevertheless, seven of 19 deaths more than 20 years after first treatment were due to breast cancer. Late deaths from breast cancer may, however, have often been the result of metastases from second primaries rather than the late manifestation of micrometastases from the original primary carcinoma. Age, menstrual state, clinical stage, and axillary nodes being affected are thus of some prognostic value in cancer of the breast, but the present inadequacy of knowledge of the behaviour of the disease makes accurate prediction of which patients will be cured impossible.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Urinary hydroxyproline and prognosis in human breast cancer.

The excretion of urinary hydroxyproline has been measured before mastectomy in 342 patients presenting with breast cancer for the first time to Guy's Hospital. The first 106 women were maintained on a gelatine-free diet whilst the remainder were on unrestricted diet. In both dietary groups hydroxyproline levels or the ratio of hydroxyproline to urinary creatinine were not related to pathological stage or histological grade. The time between initial presentation and subsequent bone metastases was negatively and significantly associated with hydroxyproline excretion (P less than 0.05) and the ratio of hydroxyproline to creatinine (P less than 0.01) in women on a gelatine-free diet. A similar, but not significant, trend was observed in patients on unrestricted diet. Although hydroxyproline excretion was related to the time to onset of bone metastases the amount of hydroxyproline excreted by these patients was not significantly different from patients who had recurrences at sites other than bone or patients who were disease-free up to 5 years after initial diagnosis. The conclusion is that hydroxyproline is of little value in the early detection of bone metastases.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Bilateral primary breast cancer: a prospective study of disease incidence.

A prospective study was carried out, between January 1980 and March 1982, of all women who presented to the Breast Cancer Unit, Guy's Hospital, with a second primary breast cancer. The percentage of new simultaneous tumours detected clinically or by mammography was approximately 3 per cent. Routine mammographic screening of the contralateral breasts of patients with unilateral disease increased the rate of detection, fivefold, of simultaneous bilateral cancers. The incidence of nonsimultaneous bilateral disease was 7.6 second cancers per thousand patients at risk per year. The annual rate of occurrence of second primary cancers was a constant event and showed no trend either to increase or to decrease with follow-up. However, the risk of a nonsimultaneous second cancer was strongly correlated with age at first primary. Women who developed their first breast cancers under the age of 40 years had three times the risk of developing a second breast cancer compared with those who developed their first cancer after the age of 40. The risk of a second nonsimultaneous primary was 5.9 times that of the risk of occurrence of cancer in the first breast in the general female population.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Urinary androgen and 17-hydroxylated corticosteroid metabolites and their relation to recurrence rates in early breast cancer.

The amounts of urinary androsterone and etiocholanolone are highly correlated with recurrence rates in patients with early breast cancer after treatment by mastectomy. A more efficient means of predicting the clinical course of the disease is obtained by using a ratio of these compounds to the amounts of individual 17-hydroxycorticosteroids in the urine. For instance, the ratio of androsterone to alpha-cortolone is particularly effective in identifying women with a high rate of recurrence, and this is largely independent of pathological stage and tumor grade.

17-Hydroxycorticosteroids↗
PubMed1984

Serum carcinoembryonic antigen in the diagnosis and prognosis of women with breast cancer.

Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) has been measured in 628 patients before and 577 patients after treatment for breast cancer. These came from an unselected sequence of 730 women, subsequently diagnosed as having stage I or II breast cancer, referred to Guy's Hospital over a period of nearly 5 yr. CEA was also measured in serum from 238 ostensibly healthy volunteers and 65 women with benign breast disease. CEA measurements were of no diagnostic value. There were more patients with breast cancer with values in excess of 10 ng/ml measured preoperatively (7%) or after mastectomy (5%) than in controls (3%), but the difference is of marginal significance. High levels of CEA were not consistently associated with pathological stage or histological grade. Mastectomy was not associated with any significant change in the distribution of CEA levels. Patients with stage II disease and pre-operative CEA levels over 10 ng/ml has a faster recurrence rate than those with levels of less than 2.5 ng/ml. High levels were also associated with reduced survival. However, such patients comprised about 5% of women presenting with early breast cancer, so that the use of CEA measurements for prognosis is of limited value.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Needle biopsy of the breast.

Recently, there has been a considerable increase in the use of both fine-needle aspiration biopsy (aspiration cytology) and tissue-core needle biopsy of the breast. In patients with suspected breast cancer, needle biopsy is frequently used to confirm the diagnosis before treatment is planned. This allows a more thoughtful approach to the patient and full screening for possible metastatic disease prior to definitive surgery. Needle biopsy techniques are simple, rapid, can be performed in the doctor's office, and save time, equipment, and hospital beds. Complications are few. Aspiration cytology has the advantage that it is quick to perform, the preparation can be examined almost immediately and, in the event of an unsatisfactory smear, the procedure can be repeated. However, the diagnosis is based on purely cytological evaluation, and the information obtained is somewhat limited. Reported accuracy rates range from 42 to 96%. False positive reports are rare but have occurred in most centers, and a high degree of accuracy will only be obtained by experienced practitioners. Tissue-core needle biopsy has the advantage that the diagnosis is based on histopathological assessment, but the procedure is slightly more time consuming, is more traumatic for the patient, and the equipment is more expensive. Accuracy rates range from 67 to 98.5%. During the past 4 years, 329 tissue-core (Tru-Cut) biopsies have been performed in the Guy's Hospital Breast Unit, with an accuracy rate of 83% in the diagnosis of carcinoma. The procedure has been acceptable to most patients, and complications have been minimal. Studies comparing the use of aspiration cytology and tissue-core needle biopsy in the diagnosis of mammary carcinoma have produced variable results. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of technique must depend on the clinical situation and the preferences and skills of the practitioners involved in the management of the patient.

Biopsy, Needle↗
PubMed1983

Steroid receptors and prognosis in operable (stage I and II) breast cancer.

Four hundred and forty-seven women with operable (TNM stage I or II) breast cancer in whom oestrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PgR) or both receptors had been assayed were studied. Receptor status was independent of axillary nodal status, but infiltrating duct carcinomas that were ER-, PgR- or ER-PgR- were more likely to be anaplastic (P less than 0.001). Four hundred patients with follow-up and uniform treatment were analysed for post-operative disease-free interval (DFI) and survival. No significant difference in DFI existed between patients with ER+ and ER- tumours or PgR+ and PgR- tumours, although there was a trend for longer DFI for ER+ and PgR+. DFI was longer in patients with better-differentiated (grade 1 and 2) tumours than with anaplastic (grade 3) tumours. In patients with ER+ tumours, those with grade 1 and 2 tumours had a longer DFI than those with grade 3 tumours (P less than 0.005). Survival was significantly longer in patients with ER+ tumours compared to those with ER- tumours (P less than 0.001), but there was no such association between tumour PgR and survival. Survival of patients with ER+PgR+ tumours was significantly longer than those with ER-PgR- tumours (P less than 0.025) and, in patients with no evidence of axillary nodal involvement, significantly longer than those with ER+PgR- tumours. Survival in patients with nodal involvement was influenced by histological grade, being longer in those with grade 1 or 2 tumours compared to those with grade 3 tumours. For ER+ tumours, survival was longer in patients with grade 1 or 2 than with grade 3 tumours. These results suggest that steroid receptors significantly affect survival but not DFI. This effect is most closely related to ER content, with relatively little additional information accruing from analysis of PgR. Histological grade influences both DFI and survival, and analysis of both grade and ER content may give a more accurate indication of prognosis in operable breast cancer.

Axilla↗
PubMed1983

Breast parenchymal patterns in women with bilateral primary breast cancer.

Mammograms were obtained from 44 women aged over 30 years with bilateral primary breast cancer, 60 women with unilateral breast cancer, matched for age and menopausal status with the bilateral cases, and 937 normal women, again all aged over 30 years. The mammograms were classified according to Wolfe's criteria. Both groups of cancer patients were found to have a significantly (p less than 0.05) greater proportion of pre-menopausal women with the DY type of breast parenchymal pattern compared with the normal pre-menopausal women. No association was found between the P2 mammographic pattern and breast cancer. The study failed to show any difference in the distribution of mammographic risk categories in women with bilateral disease and those with unilateral cancers only.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Urinary androgen metabolites and recurrence rates in early breast cancer.

Androsterone and aetiocholanolone were measured in urine specimens obtained from 218 women with early breast cancer. Patients who excreted less than the median amount of these steroids had a significantly higher recurrence rate (P less than 0.005) than patients excreting more than the median value. The relationship between androgen excretion and recurrence is stronger in pre-menopausal women that in the post-menopausal group. The androgen assays are still associated with recurrence rates when patients are stratified by pathological stage, but no clear relationship was found with histological grade.

Androsterone↗
PubMed1982

The diagnostic value of testing for occult blood.

An analysis of 270 patients undergoing microdochectomy for nipple discharge from a single identifiable duct, and without an associated lump, revealed that occult cancers were all accompanied by hemoglobin positive discharge. A simple method of detecting the presence of hemoglobin in the discharge is described. The incidence of cancer was found to be 5.9%. In order of frequency, intraduct papilloma, duct ectasia, cystic disease, and carcinoma accounted for over 90% of the cases. Six patients in whom no malignancy was seen in the microdochectomy specimen subsequently developed cancer in the ipsilateral breast. A close follow-up of all patients with hemoglobin positive discharge and in whom no cause for the discharge is demonstrated at microdochectomy is stressed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Breast cancer in women who have taken contraceptive steroids.

The prognosis and clinical and pathological findings in 93 patients with breast cancer who had taken contraceptive steroids before diagnosis (study group) were compared with those in 93 control patients, also with breast cancer, matched for age and parity. The tumours in the women in the study group were found to have more favourable clinical and histological features than those in the control group. When only patients who had been treated by radical mastectomy were considered, those who had taken contraceptive steroids survived significantly longer even when differences in nodal state were taken into account. Significantly more patients in the study group had a family history of breast cancer. No evidence was found that taken oral contraceptive steroids had any harmful effect on tumour growth and spread, except possibly in patients with a close family history of breast cancer.

Axilla↗
PubMed1981

A prospective study of plasma prolactin levels and subsequent risk of breast cancer.

Plasma prolactin was measured in 2,572 pre-menopausal, 628 menopausal, and 1,666 peri- and post-menopausal women who were apparently healthy. Breast cancer was subsequently diagnosed in 47 of these women at a median time of 5 years after blood collection (pre-cancer cases). Prolactin levels in pre-menopausal cases increased significantly with age whereas this was not found in matched controls. The perimenopausal cases were characterized by extreme variability in prolactin levels. In post-menopausal women who developed breast cancer, the prolactin levels were significantly elevated, being at or above the 70th percentile for the controls. In this group the results are consistent with prolactin acting as a late-stage tumour promoter.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Correlation of hormone receptors with pathological features in human breast cancer.

Correlations have been found between certain pathologic features and estrogen and progesterone receptors status of mammary carcinoma. Well-differentiated carcinomas were more frequently receptor positive than poorly differentiated tumors. An increasing degree of lymphocytic and plasmacytic infiltrate in the tumor was associated with a decreasing incidence of estrogen receptor activity. In addition, elastosis in primary carcinomas has been correlated with response to endocrine therapy in patients with advanced disease. With increasing amounts of elastosis in the primary tumor, there was an increase in the response rate. Also, patients with estrogen receptor positive tumors with no elastosis showed a response rate similar to that of estrogen receptor-negative tumors. Hormone receptor analysis is most valuable when considered with other factors.

Breast Neoplasms↗