Curigliano G et al. De-escalating and escalating treatments for early stage breast cancer: the St. Gallen International Expert Consensus Conference on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer 2017. Ann Oncol. 2017 Aug 1;28(8):1700-12.
This summary of the 2017 St. Gallen Conference proceedings provides a comprehensive yet concise review of contemporary standards of care in managing early stage breast cancer. Issues reviewed include lumpectomy margins, extent of breast/axillary surgery following neoadjuvant chemotherapy, options for breast radiation schedules following lumpectomy, and application of currently available gene expression profiles.
Troester MA et al. Racial differences in PAM50 subtypes in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Feb 1;110(2);doi: 10.1093/jnci/djx135; epub ahead of print (Aug 2017).
Breast cancer outcome disparities related to racial/ethnic identity are well documented, with African American patients experiencing higher mortality rates, compared with White Americans. This disparity is partly explained by differences in tumor biology, since triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is twice as common in African American patients. Troester et al. conducted RNA expression-based PAM-50 tumor subtyping to demonstrate significantly higher rates of biologically aggressive tumor subtypes among African Americans breast cancer patients, compared with white Americans.
Lisa Newman, MD, FACS
Dr. Lisa Newman
Foregut
Teitelbaum EN et al. Clinical outcomes five years after POEM for treatment of primary esophageal motility disorders. Surg Endosc. 2017 Jun 29. doi: 10.1007/s00464-017-5699-2 ; epub ahead of print.
This provides the longest follow-up to date regarding clinical efficacy of peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) in the United States. Although not a panacea, POEM appears to provide substantial durable clinical improvement in patients suffering from esophageal motility disorders.
Kevin Reavis, MD, FACS
Dr. Kevin Reavis
Yufei Chen et al. Primary lymph node gastrinoma: A single institution experience. Surgery 2017 Nov;162(5):1088-94
This article retrospectively review a rare neuroendocrine (gastrinoma) tumor over a 25-year period at a single institution, noting all demographics and outcomes. Great update and refresher. The article then went farther, evaluating an even rarer occurrence of a primary lymph node gastrinoma within this patient population and followed those patients outcomes as well. Two “values” for the “price of one.”
Haisley KR et al. Twenty-year trends in the utilization of Heller myotomy for achalasia in the United States. Am J Surg. 2017 Aug;214(2):299-302.
Dr. Gary Timmerman
Gary Timmerman, MD, FACS