To assess the role of axillary dissection in older breast cancer patients with a clinically clear axilla. Axillary dissection, once standard treatment for breast cancer, is associated with considerable morbidity. It has been substituted by sentinel node biopsy with dissection only if the sentinel node is positive. We aimed to determine whether axillary surgery can be omitted in older women, thereby sparing them morbidity, without compromising long-term disease control. We carried out a randomized clinical trial on 238 older (65-80 years) breast cancer patients, with clinically N0 disease of radiographic diameter 2 cm or less. Patients were randomized to quadrantectomy with or without axillary dissection. All received radiotherapy to the residual breast but not the axilla; all were prescribed tamoxifen for 5 years. Main outcome measures were overall survival and breast cancer mortality. We also assessed overt axillary disease in those who did not receive axillary dissection. After 15 years of follow-up, distant metastasis rate, overall survival, and breast cancer mortality in the axillary dissection and no axillary dissection arms were indistinguishable. The 15-year cumulative incidence of overt axillary disease in the no axillary dissection arm was only 6%. Older patients with early breast cancer and a clinically clear axilla treated by conservative surgery, postoperative radiotherapy, and adjuvant tamoxifen do not benefit from axillary dissection. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (ID NCT00002720).

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to develop a histology‐specific nomogram to predict postoperative overall survival (OS) at 5 and 10 years in primary retroperitoneal soft tissue sarcoma (STS).METHODS: Data registered at a single institution (National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy) prospective sarcoma database were used. In the present analysis, patients with primary localized retroperitoneal STS resected with curative intent between 1985 and 2007 were included. A parametric piecewise exponential survival multivariate model was used for nomogram development, and internal validation was performed with standard methodologies. Known prognostic variables, such as age, tumor burden, histologic variant (as reviewed by a sarcoma pathologist), grade, and surgical margins were considered as putative predictors.RESULTS: Among the 192 patients analyzed, within 10 years from surgery, 114 patients were alive, with a median follow‐up time of 55 months (interquartile range, 25‐104 months). Among the investigated factors, only histologic subtype did not reach significance at the 10% level. The relative hazard increased while increasing tumor size up to about 25 cm, and decreased thereafter.CONCLUSIONS: A histology‐specific nomogram for retroperitoneal STS is now available. It can be used for better assessing the risk of the single patient and then making individualized decisions within the specific subset of retroperitoneal sarcomas. Cross‐check external validation should be performed. Cancer 2010. © 2010 American Cancer Society.

The study was designed to determine how tumour hormone receptor status affects the subsequent pattern over time (dynamics) of breast cancer recurrence and death following conservative primary breast cancer resection.

Poor medication adherence compromises treatment efficacy and adversely affects patients’ clinical outcomes. This study aims to assess (1) multiple medication adherence to the most common drug classes chronically prescribed to older people, (2) the factors associated, and (3) the clinical outcomes. This retrospective cohort study included 122,655 community-dwelling patients aged 65–94 years old, newly exposed to chronic polypharmacy, and recorded in the Lombardy Region (northern Italy) administrative database from 2016 to 2018. Multiple medication adherence was assessed for drugs for diabetes, antithrombotics, antihypertensives, statins, and bisphosphonates, by calculating the daily polypharmacy possession ratio (DPPR). One-year mortality, nursing home, emergency department (ED), and hospital admission rates were calculated for 2019. The most prescribed drugs were antihypertensives (89.0%). The mean (std.dev) DPPR was 82.9% (15.6). Being female (OR = 0.85, 95%CI: 0.84–0.86), age ≥85 years (OR = 0.77, 95%CI: 0.76–0.79), and multimorbidity (≥4 diseases, OR = 0.88, 95%CI: 0.86–0.90) were associated with lower medication adherence. A higher DPPR was associated with clinical outcomes—in particular, improved survival (HR = 0.93 for 10/100-point increase, 95%CI: 0.92–0.94) and lower incidence in nursing home admissions (SDHR = 0.95, 95%CI: 0.93–0.97). Adherence to the most common chronic drugs co-prescribed to the older population was high. Better multiple medication adherence was associated with better clinical outcomes.