BACKGROUND: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive cancer subtype, with limited treatments and a high metastasis risk. The varying location of metastasis in TNBC patients often leads to in prognosis in breast cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential association between immune cells profiles in the tumor microenvironment and metastatic patterns.
METHODS: We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional study in 2022 to examine formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and medical record data from 2015 to 2020 in de novo metastatic TNBC patients. The medical records provided crucial information about the sites of metastasis. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis was carried out on primary breast tumor tissues to evaluate the expressions of cluster of differentiation (CD)4 T-cells, CD8 T-cells, CD163, FOXP3 Tregs, and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), along with immune cells ratios showing antitumor-to-protumor activity (CD4/FOXP3, CD8/FOXP3, CD4/CD163, CD8/CD163). Metastatic locations were grouped into bone-only, visceral, lung, liver, and brain metastasis.  Results: A total of 120 metastatic TNBC patients were documented for their metastatic location and IHC report. The clinical and histopathological characteristics showed that the majority of the patients were within the 40-65 years old group, and 34.2% had standard body mass index (BMI). Furthermore, the majority (89.22%) of the patients showed No Special Type (NST), (56.7%) had histopathology grade III, high Ki-67 ≥20% (85.8%), and positive PD-L1 expression (30.8%), with visceral metastasis indicating the highest proportion of 75.8%. Patients with a high CD8/FOXP3 and CD4/FOXP3 ratio were significantly prone to have bone-only metastasis compared to visceral metastasis (p= 0.028 and p=0.024, respectively).  Conclusion: The ratio of antitumor to protumor T-lymphocytes had a significant relevance in the metastatic location patterns in TNBC.

OBJECTIVE: The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with pN1 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) according to the location of lymph node (LN) metastases remains unclear. In this study, we examined the location of LN metastasis and prognosis to identify the significance of adjuvant chemotherapy.
METHODS: Thirty-five patients with pathological T1a-2bN1M0 NSCLC who underwent curative resection between 2010 and 2016 were enrolled in the study. We defined patients with LN metastasis extending in stations 10-12 as the hilar group (n=22), and only in stations 13-14 as the intralobar group (n=13).
RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the overall survival (OS) (p=0.042) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates (p=0.021) between the intralobar and hilar groups. In the intralobar group, there were no significant differences in the OS and DFS rates according to adjuvant chemotherapy. However, patients without adjuvant chemotherapy had a poorer OS (p<0.001) and DFS rates (p<0.001) in the hilar group.
CONCLUSIONS: Prognosis significantly differed according to adjuvant chemotherapy in the hilar group.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to evaluate the role of thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) in a selected patient population with oligometastatic extensive stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) without brain or liver involved. The underlying hypothesis was that TRT will improve outcomes in this favorable patient population.
METHODS: 305 patients were included in an institutional review board (IRB)-approved study, of which 105 received TRT after chemotherapy (ChT) and 200 received ChT alone. The survival outcomes were compared between ChT+TRT group and ChT-alone group in patients with oligometastasis without brain or liver involved and patients with brain/liver/multimetastasis, respectively.
RESULTS: The 1-year, 2-year and 5-year overall survival (OS) for all patients were 60.3%, 23.9% and 1.6%, respectively. The addition of TRT significantly improved PFS in total patients than ChT alone (14.5 months vs. 10.1 months, p = 0.006), but the OS benefit was not significant (17.8 months vs. 16.5 months, p = 0.061). For patients with oligometastasis (n = 118), TRT offered significant progression free survival (PFS) (16.5 months vs. 9.1 months, p = 0.005) and OS (19.2 months vs. 15.6 months, p = 0.039) benefits. However, for patients with brain/liver/multimetastasis, the PFS and OS were not improved with TRT (p = 0.49, p = 0.811).
CONCLUSIONS: TRT provided significant PFS and OS benefits in patients with oligometastatic ES-SCLC without brain or liver involved. The consolidative TRT is a reasonable treatment option for this favorable patient population.