Purpose: An unmet need in low-resource countries is an automated breast cancer detection assay to prioritize women who should undergo core breast biopsy and pathologic review. Therefore, we sought to identify and validate a panel of methylated DNA markers to discriminate between cancer and benign breast lesions using cells obtained by fine-needle aspiration (FNA). Experimental Design: Two case-control studies were conducted comparing cancer and benign breast tissue identified from clinical repositories in the United States, China, and South Africa for marker selection/training (N = 226) and testing (N = 246). Twenty-five methylated markers were assayed by Quantitative Multiplex-Methylation-Specific PCR (QM-MSP) to select and test a cancer-specific panel. Next, a pilot study was conducted on archival FNAs (49 benign, 24 invasive) from women with mammographically suspicious lesions using a newly developed, 5-hour, quantitative, automated cartridge system. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) compared with histopathology for the marker panel. Results: In the discovery cohort, 10 of 25 markers were selected that were highly methylated in breast cancer compared with benign tissues by QM-MSP. In the independent test cohort, this panel yielded an AUC of 0.937 (95% CI = 0.900- 0.970). In the FNA pilot, we achieved an AUC of 0.960 (95% CI = 0.883-1.0) using the automated cartridge system. Conclusions: We developed and piloted a fast and accurate methylation marker-based automated cartridge system to detect breast cancer in FNA samples. This quick ancillary test has the potential to prioritize cancer over benign tissues for expedited pathologic evaluation in poorly resourced countries.

The immune response in metastatic melanoma is not well established and therefore is of particular interest to test for recruitment of immune cells to the tumor. A 46-year-old Caucasian female was evaluated for an asymptomatic right forearm mass. The lesion had been present for at least 4 years and had become painful 4 months ago. Biopsies for hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) staining, as well as immunohistochemical analysis were performed on the primary tumor and on sentinel lymph nodes. The H and E staining was consistent with metastatic melanoma. Positive staining was noted on the tumor cells with S-100, Mart-1/Melan A/CD63, PNL2, HMB45, and tyrosinase. Peritumoral and intratumoral inflammatory cells stained positive for CD8, CD45, PCNA, myeloid histoid antigen, antihuman plasma cell antibody, and focal BRCA1. The staining patterns of CD8/CD45, myeloid histoid antigen and plasma cell antibody on inflammatory cells around the melanoma cells suggest an unusual type of immune response.

OBJECTIVE - Hospital hyperglycemia, in individuals with and without diabetes, has been identified as a marker of poor clinical outcome in cardiac surgery patients. However, the impact of perioperative hyperglycemia on clinical outcome in general and noncardiac surgery patients is not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - This was an observational study with the aim of determining the relationship between pre- and postsurgery blood glucose levels and hospital length of stay (LOS), complications, and mortality in 3,184 noncardiac surgery patients consecutively admitted to Emory University Hospital (Atlanta, GA) between 1 January 2007 and 30 June 2007. RESULTS - The overall 30-day mortality was 2.3%, with nonsurvivors having significantly higher blood glucose levels before and after surgery (both P < 0.01) than survivors. Perioperative hyperglycemia was associated with increased hospital and intensive care unit LOS (P < 0.001) as well as higher numbers of postoperative cases of pneumonia (P < 0.001), systemic blood infection (P < 0.001), urinary tract infection (P < 0.001), acute renal failure (P = 0.005), and acute myocardial infarction (P = 0.005). In multivariate analysis (adjusted for age, sex, race, and surgery severity), the risk of death increased in proportion to perioperative glucose levels; however, this association was significant only for patients without a history of diabetes (P = 0.008) compared with patients with known diabetes (P = 0.748). CONCLUSIONS - Perioperative hyperglycemia is associated with increased LOS, hospital complications, and mortality after noncardiac general surgery. Randomized controlled trials are needed to determine whether perioperative diabetes management improves clinical outcome in noncardiac surgery patients.

Background: Variation in tumor biology in African-American (AA) and Caucasian (CAU) women with breast cancer is poorly defined. Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) is a bad prognostic factor of breast cancer yet it has never being studied in the AA population. We tested the hypothesis that ALCAM expression would be markedly lower in cases of AA breast cancer when compared to CAU. Methods: Cases of breast cancer among AA (n = 78) and CAU (n = 95) women were studied. Immunohistochemical staining was used to semi-quantitatively score ALCAM expression in tumor and adjacent non-tumor breast tissues. Clinico-pathological characteristics including histological type, histological grade, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2-neu status were abstracted, and their association with ALCAM expression tested. Results: Univariate analysis revealed that the level of ALCAM expression at intercellular junctions of primary tumors correlates with histological grade (AA; p = 0.04, CUA; p = 0.02), ER status (AA; p = 0.0004, CAU; p = 0.0015), PR status (AA; p = 0.002, CUA p = 0.034) and triple-negative tumor status (AA; p = 0.0002, CAU; p = 0.0006,) in both ethnic groups. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that ethnicity contribute significantly to ALCAM expression after accounting for basal-like subtype, age, histological grade, tumor size, and lymph node status. Compared to CAU tumors, the AA are 4 times more likely to have low ALCAM expression (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Markedly low expression of ALCAM at sites of cell-cell contact in primary breast cancer tumors regardless of differentiation, size and lymph node involvement may contribute to the more aggressive phenotype of breast cancer among AA women.

OBJECTIVE Effective and easily implemented insulin regimens are needed to facilitate hospital glycemic control in general medical and surgical patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This multicenter trial randomized 375 patients with T2D treated with diet, oral antidiabetic agents, or low-dose insulin (≤0.4 units/kg/day) to receive a basal-bolus regimen with glargine once daily and glulisine before meals, a basal plus regimen with glargine once daily and supplemental doses of glulisine, and sliding scale regular insulin (SSI). RESULTS Improvement in mean daily blood glucose (BG) after the first day of therapy was similar between basal-bolus and basal plus groups (P = 0.16), and both regimens resulted in a lower mean daily BG than did SSI (P = 0.04). In addition, treatment with basal-bolus and basal plus regimens resulted in less treatment failure (defined as >2 consecutive BG >240 mg/dL or a mean daily BG >240 mg/dL) than did treatment with SSI (0 vs. 2 vs. 19%, respectively; P < 0.001). A BG <70 mg/dL occurred in 16% of patients in the basal-bolus group, 13% in the basal plus group, and 3% in the SSI group (P = 0.02). There was no difference among the groups in the frequency of severe hypoglycemia (<40 mg/dL; P = 0.76). CONCLUSIONS The use of a basal plus regimen with glargine once daily plus corrective doses with glulisine insulin before meals resulted in glycemic control similar to a standard basal-bolus regimen. The basal plus approach is an effective alternative to the use of a basal-bolus regimen in general medical and surgical patients with T2D.

OBJECTIVE The optimal treatment of hyperglycemia in general surgical patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus is not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This randomized multicenter trial compared the safety and efficacy of a basal-bolus insulin regimen with glargine once daily and glulisine before meals (n = 104) to sliding scale regular insulin (SSI) four times daily (n = 107) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing general surgery. Outcomes included differences in daily blood glucose (BG) and a composite of postoperative complications including wound infection, pneumonia, bacteremia, and respiratory and acute renal failure. RESULTS The mean daily glucose concentration after the 1st day of basal-bolus insulin and SSI was 145 ± 32 mg/dL and 172 ± 47 mg/dL, respectively (P < 0.01). Glucose readings <140 mg/dL were recorded in 55% of patients in basal-bolus and 31% in the SSI group (P < 0.001). There were reductions with basal-bolus as compared with SSI in the composite outcome [24.3 and 8.6%; odds ratio 3.39 (95% CI 1.50–7.65); P = 0.003]. Glucose <70 mg/dL was reported in 23.1% of patients in the basal-bolus group and 4.7% in the SSI group (P < 0.001), but there were no significant differences in the frequency of BG <40 mg/dL between groups (P = 0.057). CONCLUSIONS Basal-bolus treatment with glargine once daily plus glulisine before meals improved glycemic control and reduced hospital complications compared with SSI in general surgery patients. Our study indicates that a basal-bolus insulin regimen is preferred over SSI in the hospital management of general surgery patients with type 2 diabetes.

Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) stimulates the invasive growth of epithelial cells via the c-MET oncogene-encoded receptor. In normal lung, both the receptor and the ligand are detected, and the latter is known to be a mitogenic and a motogenic factor for both cultured bronchial epithelial cells and non-small-cell carcinoma lines. Here, ligand and receptor expression was examined in 42 samples of primary human non-small-cell lung carcinoma of different histotype. Each carcinoma sample was compared with adjacent normal lung tissue. The Met/HGF receptor was found to be 2 to 10-fold increased in 25% of carcinoma samples (P = 0.0113). The ligand, HGF/SF, was found to be 10 to 100-fold overexpressed in carcinoma samples (P < 0.0001). Notably, while HGF/SF was occasionally detectable and found exclusively as a single-chain inactive precursor in normal tissues, it was constantly in the biologically-active heterodimeric form in carcinomas. Immunohistochemical staining showed homogeneous expression of both the receptor and the ligand in carcinoma samples, whereas staining was barely delectable in their normal counterparts. These data show that HGF/SF is overexpressed and consistently activated in non-small-cell lung carcinomas and may contribute to the invasive growth of lung cancer.

Estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers adapt to hormone deprivation and become resistant to antiestrogen therapy. Here, we performed deep sequencing on ER+ tumors that remained highly proliferative after treatment with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole and identified a D189Y mutation in the inhibitory SH2 domain of the SRC family kinase (SFK) LYN. Evaluation of 463 breast tumors in The Cancer Genome Atlas revealed four LYN mutations, two of which affected the SH2 domain. In addition, LYN was upregulated in multiple ER+ breast cancer lines resistant to long-term estrogen deprivation (LTED). An RNAi-based kinome screen revealed that LYN is required for growth of ER+ LTED breast cancer cells. Kinase assays and immunoblot analyses of SRC substrates in transfected cells indicated that LYND189Y has higher catalytic activity than WT protein. Further, LYND189Y exhibited reduced phosphorylation at the inhibitory Y507 site compared with LYNWT. Other SH2 domain LYN mutants, E159K and K209N, also exhibited higher catalytic activity and reduced inhibitory site phosphorylation. LYND189Y overexpression abrogated growth inhibition by fulvestrant and/or the PI3K inhibitor BKM120 in 3 ER+ breast cancer cell lines. The SFK inhibitor dasatinib enhanced the antitumor effect of BKM120 and fulvestrant against estrogen-deprived ER+ xenografts but not LYND189Y-expressing xenografts. These results suggest that LYN mutations mediate escape from antiestrogens in a subset of ER+ breast cancers.

Objective: To determine differences in inpatient glycemic control and response to two different glargine-based insulin regimens in general medicine and surgery patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods: This is a post-hoc analysis of a prospective, multicenter, randomized trial of 298 non-ICU medicine and surgery patients with T2D treated with Basal Bolus regimen with glargine once daily and glulisine before meals and with Basal Plus regimen with glargine once daily and supplemental doses of glulisine before meals for blood glucose (BG) > 140 mg/dl. Major study outcomes included differences in mean daily BG, frequency of treatment failures (defined as > 2 consecutive BG > 240 mg/dl or a mean daily BG > 240 mg/dl), and hypoglycemia between the medicine and surgery cohorts. Results: Patients treated with Basal Bolus or with Basal Plus experienced similar improvement in mean daily BG after 1st day of therapy (p = 0.16), number of treatment failures (p = 0.11) and hypoglycemic events (p = 0.50). Compared to surgery patients (n = 130), medicine patients (n = 168) had higher admission BG (p = 0.01) and HbA1c levels (p < 0.01); however, they had similar response to either treatment regimen without differences in mean daily BG after 1st day of therapy (p = 0.18), number of treatment failures (p = 0.58), daily insulin requirements (p = 0.36), or in the frequency of hypoglycemia (p = 0.79). Conclusion: The Basal Plus regimen with glargine once daily and correction doses with glulisine before meals resulted in similar glycemic control to basal bolus regimen. We observed no differences in response to either basal insulin regimen between medicine and surgery patients with type 2 diabetes.

Inhibition of proliferation in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers after short-term antiestrogen therapy correlates with long-term patient outcome. We profiled 155 ER+/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2) early breast cancers from 143 patients treated with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole for 10 to 21 days before surgery. Twenty-one percent of tumors remained highly proliferative, suggesting that these tumors harbor alterations associated with intrinsic endocrine therapy resistance. Whole-exome sequencing revealed a correlation between 8p11-12 and 11q13 gene amplifications, including FGFR1 and CCND1, respectively, and high Ki67. We corroborated these findings in a separate cohort of serial pretreatment, postneoadjuvant chemotherapy, and recurrent ER+ tumors. Combined inhibition of FGFR1 and CDK4/6 reversed antiestrogen resistance in ER+ FGFR1/CCND1 coamplified CAMA1 breast cancer cells. RNA sequencing of letrozole-treated tumors revealed the existence of intrachromosomal ESR1 fusion transcripts and increased expression of gene signatures indicative of enhanced E2F-mediated transcription and cell cycle processes in cancers with high Ki67. These data suggest that short-term preoperative estrogen deprivation followed by genomic profiling can be used to identify druggable alterations that may cause intrinsic endocrine therapy resistance.