Vahit Ozmen

• Professor of Surgery
• Managing Director at Group Florence Nightingale Hastaneleri

Background The Bahçeşehir population-based mammography screening program (BMSP) is an example of Türkiye’s first population-based screening program. This study aims to reveal the successful implementation of population-based secreening program in one of the low- and middle-income countries, Türkiye and long-term results of patients diagnosed with b...

Importance Increasing evidence supports the oncologic safety of de-escalating axillary surgery for patients with breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Objective To evaluate the oncologic outcomes of de-escalating axillary surgery among patients with clinically node (cN)–positive breast cancer and patients whose disease became cN nega...

Introduction: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is a prevalent treatment strategy for patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Achieving a pathologic complete response (pCR) is a critical determinant of favorable outcomes. To enhance response rates, some clinicians have incorporated radiotherapy (RT) prior to surgery. Methods: This observ...

The combined analysis of the retrospective multicentre and prospective multicenter cohort registry trial NEOSENTITURK MF18-02/18-03 (NCT04250129) investigated the outcomes and factors associated with recurrence in patients with cT1-4N1-3M0 who underwent a succesful sentinel lymph node biopsy or targeted axillary dissection (n = 1470), with or witho...

This study aims to identify factors predicting recurrence and unfavorable prognosis in cN+ patients who have undergone sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). The retrospective multi-centre “MF18-02” and the prospective multi-centre cohort registry trial “MF18-03” (NCT04250129) included patients with cT1-4N1-3M0...

Background Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is widely used in patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Still, axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is recommended for patients with any axillary residual disease after NAC. The necessity of ALND in patients with minimal axillary disease is unclear. We aim to investigate regional recurren...

Background The omission of axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) remains controversial for patients with residual axillary disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), regardless of the residual burden. This study evaluated the oncologic safety and factors associated with outcomes in patients with residual axillary disease. These patients were tre...

Background Elevated mammographic density (MD) for a woman’s age and body mass index (BMI) is an established breast cancer risk factor. The relationship of parity, age at first birth, and breastfeeding with MD is less clear. We examined the associations of these factors with MD within the International Consortium of Mammographic Density (ICMD). Met...

OBJECTIVE Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in females. Cancer screening programs increase the detection of early-stage breast cancer. This study aimed to assess the long-term outcomes and the effect of adjuvant therapies for recurrence in stage I breast cancer patients. METHODS We recorded clinicopathological and treatment features of the...

Background Survival time and quality of life increase with the early diagnosis of breast cancer. We aim to investigate the feasibility of abbreviated protocol (AP) breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening in women with dense breasts in a screening program in a middle-income country. Methods The study included 649 women selected randomly f...

Background Sentinel lymph node biopsy(SLNB) is widely used in patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy(NAC). Still, axillary lymph node dissection(ALND) is recommended for patients with any axillary residual disease after NAC. The necessity of ALND in patients with minimal axillary disease is unclear. We aim to investigate regional recurrence...

Simple Summary We investigated any possible associations between chemokine receptor expression and responses to chemotherapy along with survival outcomes in patients with triple-negative breast cancer with locally advanced disease. Expressions of chemokine receptors were examined after staining surgical specimens using specific antibodies for CCR5,...

Background: Previous prospective studies reported decreased false negative rates in patients presenting with T1-3/cN1 disease, with the removal of 2 or more sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), using combined technique for SLN biopsy (SLNB), and by targeted axillary dissection (TAD) in initially clinically node-positive patients after neoadjuvant chemother...

This study evaluated whether lymphedema, patient-reported arm and shoulder morbidity and quality of life one year after axillary surgery are affected by stage or axillary surgery type between early stage patients and patients with locally advanced breast cancer who underwent surgery following neoadjuvant therapy. By determining the risk factors ass...

Introduction: The impact of loco-regional treatment (LRT) on survival in de novo bone-only metastatic breast cancer (BC) is controversial. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of LRT on survival utilizing international, prospectively acquired data in this cohort of patients. Materials and Methods: Patients with de novo metastatic BC with b...

Background Aromatase inhibitors (AI) have positive effects on disease-free life in patients with Breast Cancer (BC); on the other hand, their side effects especially arthralgia can be observed in many of patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Progressive Relaxation Exercises (PRE) on the common side effects of AI in patients wi...

Background Aromatase inhibitors have positive impacts on the disease-free life of patients with breast cancer. However, their side effects, especially arthralgia, may be experienced by many patients. This study sought to assess the efficacy of Progressive Relaxation Exercises on the prevalent side effects of Aromatase Inhibitors in patients with br...

Objective: Differences in individual muscle/fat volumes may change the effectiveness of chemotherapy. In this study, the relationship between trunkal muscle and fat volume and body mass index (BMI) obtained before receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) in patients with breast cancer and complete pathological response (pCR) was investigated. Mat...

Background Surgery remains a priority for breast cancer treatment. This study aimed to compare the cosmetic outcomes of oncoplastic patients who had undergone breast-conserving surgery, mini-LDF (latissimus dorsi flap), and immediate implant reconstruction using both the Japanese scale and the BCCT.core (The Breast Cancer Conservative Treatment cos...

Objectives We aimed to evaluate the early-detection capabilities of AI in a screening program over its duration, with a specific focus on the detection of interval cancers, the early detection of cancers with the assistance of AI from prior visits, and its impact on workload for various reading scenarios. Materials and methods The study included 2...

Estradiol (E2), a follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), AMH, and inhibin B levels, along with AFC and MOV, are used to determine ovarian reserve in pre-menopausal women. Studies have shown that AMH levels are more sensitive than those of E2, FSH, and inhibin B and that AFC and MOV can be used to evaluate ovarian reserve. AMH, AFC, and MOV measurement...

Objective:This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between PREDICT tool overall survival (OS) scores and high-risk patients according to TAILORx risk categorization in elderly hormone reseptor (HR) positive human epidermal growth factor negative early breast-cancer patients.Materials and Methods:We conducted a retrospective study, extracting d...

Background The minichromosome maintenance protein-2 (MCM-2) is a more sensitive proliferation marker than Ki-67. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between MCM-2 and Oncotype DX recurrence score (ODX-RS) and determine an MCM-2 cutoff value in high-risk patients according to TAILORx risk categorization. Methods Hormone receptor (HR) posi...

Background/aim: Germline copy number variation (CNV) is a type of genetic variant that predisposes significantly to inherited cancers. Today, next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have contributed to multi gene panel analysis in clinical practice. Materials and methods: A total of 2,163 patients were screened for cancer susceptibility, u...

Background We evaluated the outcomes, and risk factors for recurrence in patients with early stage node-negative breast cancer in this study. Method Retrospective data analysis was done on patient treatment records from 1988 to 2018. The patient’s demographic, clinical, pathological, and therapeutic characteristics were noted. To evaluate survival...

Background Immune checkpoint inhibition, combined with novel biomarkers, may provide alternative pathways for treating chemotherapy-resistant triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This study investigates the expression of new immune checkpoint receptors, including CD155 and CD73, which play a role in T and natural killer (NK) cell activities, in pa...

Background Autoimmunity may play a major role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM). The therapeutic potential of ozone therapy has recently been shown in rheumatological diseases, and this study aimed to assess the clinical efficacy of ozone therapy (OT) in refractory IGM. Methods Patients with biopsy-verified IGM and inc...

Objective: Mammographic screening and management of breast cancer (BC) in elderly women are controversial and continue to be an important health problem. To investigate, through members of the Senologic International Society (SIS), the current global practices in BC in elderly women, highlighting topics of debate and suggesting perspectives. Mate...

A better understanding of tumor biology and new drugs have led to significant changes in the management of breast cancer (BC). Radical mastectomy, which had been the treatment for BC for more than a century, was based on the hypothesis that BC is a local-regional disease. In the 1970s, Fisher's studies showed that cancer cells could reach the syste...

Background The Oncotype Dx recurrence score (ODx-RS) guides the adjuvant chemotherapy decision-making process for patients with early-stage hormone receptor-positive, HER-2 receptor-negative breast cancer. This study aimed to evaluate survival and its correlation with ODx-RS in pT1-2, N0-N1mic patients treated with adjuvant therapy based on tumor b...

Objective: A radial scar (RS) is a benign breast lesion (BBL) that has an obscure etiology. RS is easily confused with breast carcinoma and therefore correct identification radiologically and pathologically is important. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of atypical lesions by evaluating RS detected with BBL and to investigate w...

Objective: Tubular breast carcinoma (TBC) is a rare subtype of breast carcinoma (BC) with a good prognosis. In this study, we aimed to assess the clinicopathological characteristics of pure TBC (PTBC), analyze factors that may influence long-term prognosis, examine the frequency of axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM), and discuss the need for ax...

Background: Whether axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) following sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) could be spared in patients with initially clinically positive axilla after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is still controversial even though recent studies indicate that axillary recurrence seems to be a rare event. Our aim is to find out whether...

Background The optimal surgical therapy for newly diagnosed breast cancer with germline mutations in susceptibility genes is still uncertain for many physicians. In this study, we aimed to determine the efficacy of breast conserving surgery (BCS) in breast cancer patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation by assessing its outcomes and locoregional recur...

Published reports on the prognosis of pregnancy-associated breast cancer are controversial. This study aims to determine the histopathological features of pregnancy-associated breast carcinoma (PABC) and the outcomes of patients with breast cancer during pregnancy and lactation among Turkish women. The study retrospectively analyzed 29 patients dia...

Immunological dysfunction has been suggested to play a major role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM). We recently showed that ozone therapy was effective in patients with steroid‐resistant IGM. This study assessed alterations in intracellular cytokine expression patterns in different T‐lymphocyte subsets after ozone ther...

High expression of immune checkpoint receptors (ICRs) in the tumor microenvironment regulates the anti-tumor response. In this study, the differential expressions of ICRs on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in patients with early-stage breast cancer were investigated. The study included 32 patients who underwent surgery with a diagnosis of ear...

Objective: A few studies suggest that mucinous breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare breast carcinoma with good prognostic features. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate biological features and clinicopathological characteristics of pure mucinous breast carcinoma (PMBC) to determine clinical outcome in PMBC. Materials and methods: The dat...

Background: This study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between breast cancer-related lymphedema and central obesity, which is known to be effective in metabolic syndrome and chronic inflammation. Methods and Results: Thirty-six patients (18 lymphedemas, 18 control) enrolled in the study. There was no statistically significant differe...

Aim: This study investigated the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) on stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) and their treatment response. Materials & methods: One hundred fifteen patients with pre-NAC core biopsies and post-NAC surgical resection specimens were reviewed. Results: There was no significant change between pre- and post...

Background Early age at menarche and tall stature are associated with increased breast cancer risk. We examined whether these associations were also positively associated with mammographic density, a strong marker of breast cancer risk. Methods Participants were 10,681 breast-cancer-free women from 22 countries in the International Consortium of M...

Objective: Therapeutic management of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is heterogeneous among countries worldwide, and some treatment indications are still controversial. To investigate DCIS management in different countries; identify both consensual practices and controversial topics; and survey opinions about the future management of DCIS. Materi...

Background: Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare type of breast cancer that accounts for 0.2-1% of all breast cancers. To date, there are only few institutional studies comparing survival rates between different subtypes. In this retrospective cohort study, we aim to evaluate factors effecting survival rates of different subtypes of MBC....

High expression of immune checkpoint receptors (ICRs) in the tumor microenvironment regulates the anti-tumor response. In this study, the differential expression of ICRs on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in patients with early-stage breast cancer were investigated. The study included 32 patients who underwent surgery with a diagnosis of earl...

Background: Residual nodal disease at the completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) has been reported in over 60% in patients with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). This study aimed to explore whether any clinical or histopathological characteristics of patients may be associated with a lower...

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and about 10% of breast cancer cases are hereditary. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the genes most frequently associated with Hereditary Breast Cancer, although there are numerous other genes, such as PALB2, CHEK2 and ATM, that require to be considered as well. Germline Copy Number Var...

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology is used to evaluate hereditary cancer risks of patients worldwide; however, information concerning the germline multigene mutational spectrum among patients with breast cancer (BC) with consanguineous marriage (CM) is limited. Therefore, this prospective study aimed to determine the molecular characterist...

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm in a simulated screening setting and its effectiveness in detecting missed and interval cancers. Methods: Digital mammograms were collected from Bahcesehir Mammographic Screening Program which is the first organized, population-based, 10-year (2009-2019) screening pro...

Background/aim: The use of multi-gene panels for germline testing in breast cancer enables the estimation of cancer risk and guides risk-reducing management options. The aim of this study was to present data that demonstrate the different levels of actionability for multi-gene panels used in genetic testing of breast cancer patients and their fami...

Objective: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causes delays in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients due to fear of contagion and lockdown. This study aims to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer patients treated in our breast center. Materials and methods: Patients who applied to our clinic wi...

PurposeMetaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare type of breast cancer that accounts for 0.2-1% of all breast cancers. To date, there are only few institutional studies comparing survival rates between different subtypes. In this retrospective cohort study, we aim to evaluate factors effecting survival rates of different subtypes of MBC.Methods...

Background Studies on PD-L1 expression in breast cancer have gained importance in recent years, especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Our aim was to analyze the differential expression of PD-L1 to explore its correlation with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and patient survival. Methods PD-L1 expression was evaluated immu...

Introduction The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to evaluate the overall survival (OS) data of patients diagnosed with de novo stage IV breast cancer (BC) who received locoregional treatment (LRT) over a 10-year follow-up. Study Design The MF07-01 is a 1:1 multicenter, randomized clinical trial to compare the LRT with systemic therapy (S...

The benefit of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is unclear. Our study compared breast cancer patients with and without preoperative breast MRI and their long-term oncologic outcomes are reported. A total of 1378 BCS cases with early breast cancer between 1996 and 2017 were reviewed. Patients with carcinoma...

Objectives: This study aimed to measure with shear wave elastography (SWE) the stiffness degree, which is a phenotypic reflection of the tumor in patients with breast cancer, and to manifest how the measured value relates to prognostic factors and molecular subtypes. Materials and methods: This study included 99 female patients (mean age 48 years;...

Background/objective Since more solid evidence has emerged supporting the effectiveness of loco-regional treatment (LRT), clinicians consider LRT a treatment option for selected de novo stage IV breast cancer (BC) patients. This is the first report on long-term quality of life (QoL) in a cohort of patients who were randomized to receive either LRT...

Background Aromatase inhibitors (AI) have positive effects on disease-free life in patients with Breast Cancer (BC); on the other hand, their side effects especially arthralgia can be observed in many of patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Progressive Relaxation Exercises (PRE) on the common side effects of AI in patients wi...

Immune checkpoint receptors (ICRs) were recently found to modulate the anti-tumoral immune response. This study aimed to determine the clinical and pathological associations of ICRs expression on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Expressions of I...

Purpose: Factors affecting local outcome were evaluated in patients with clinically node-positive (cN+) breast cancer at diagnosis, who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) alone after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Methods: Between 2004 and 2018, 303 cytopathology-proven cN (+) patients in a multicentric registry, who received NAC and u...

e12604 Background: Studies show that Vit D increases apoptosis by inhibiting the proliferation of BC cells. The aims of this study were to prospectively investigate the effects of Vit D replacement on PCR rates in patients receiving NAC. Methods: Breast cancer patients qualified for NAC between June 2019 and September 2020 and consent for the study...

Background The expression of immune checkpoint receptors (ICRs) on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is associated with better response to immunotherapies via immune checkpoint inhibitors. Therefore, we investigated various ICR expressions on TILs in patients with locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) after neoadjuvant chemother...

Objective: In early 2020, the spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) led the World Health Organization to declare this disease a pandemic. Initial epidemiological data showed that patients with cancer were at high risk of developing severe forms of COVID-19. National scientific societies published recommendations modifying the patients' bre...

Background: Studies on PD-L1 expression in breast cancer have gained importance in recent years, especially in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Our aim was to analyse the differential expression of PD-L1 to explore its correlation with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and patient survival. Methods: PD-L1 expression was evaluated imm...

p> Background: Expression of immune checkpoint receptors (ICR) on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILSs) is associated with better response to immunotherapies via immune checkpoint inhibitors. Therefore, we investigated various ICR expressions on TILs in patients with locally advanced triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) after neoadjuvant chemother...

BACKGROUND: Omitting axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) following sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is still controversial. In this study, we evaluated factors affecting local recurrence and outcome in patients with LABC, who underwent SLNB alone after NA...

Purpose: We aimed to show the effects of long-term screening on clinical, pathologic, and survival outcomes in patients with screen-detected breast cancer and compare these findings with breast cancer patients registered in the National Breast Cancer Registry Data (NBCRD). Methods: Women aged 40-69 years, living in Bahcesehir county, Istanbul, T...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the multifocal (MF)/multicentric (MC) breast cancers with unifocal (UF) breast cancers in terms of tumour characteristics, treatment methods, loco-regional recurrence and survival rates. Methods: Patients who were treated with a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer (stage I,II) and had regular...

Purpose To compare the adipose and muscle tissue areas in patients who responded differently to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods One hundred and eighty six patients diagnosed with breast cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy between January 2015- October 2019 and were operated after the treatment were retrospectively included in the study...

Objective: To determine the relationship between the dietary characteristics of breast cancer patients. Methods: Patients with breast cancer whose treatments have finished and are in remission formed the study group and healthy people formed the control group. Demographic, anthropometric characteristics, food consumption frequency form and exerc...

Background: Recent advances in tumor biology and immune system have identified check points modulating the anti-tumoral immune response. This study aimed to determine immune check point expressions patients with locally advanced breast cancer to explore any associations between clinical and prognostic factors to show effectiveness of targeted thera...

PURPOSE The Turkish Bahçeşehir Breast Cancer Screening Project was a 10-year, organized, population-based screening program carried out in Bahçeşehir county, Istanbul. Our aim was to examine the biologic features and outcome of screen-detected and interval breast cancers during the 10-year study period. METHODS Between 2009 and 2019, 2-view mammog...

Purpose: The latissimus dorsi muscle has long been used in breast cancer (BC) patients for reconstruction. This study aimed to compare early stage BC patients who had partial mastectomy (PM) with mini latissimus dorsi flap (MLDF) and subcutaneous mastectomy with implant (MI) with respect to quality of life (QoL), cosmetic outcome (CO), and surviva...

Objective: In the phase of diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer cases, patients can usually experience sexual dysfunctions, sleep disorders and psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. The main objective of our research is to study of the pre-treatment and post-treatment anxiety, depression, sleep and sexual function levels in the...

Objective:We aimed to compare visual and quantitative measurements of breast density and to reveal the density profile with compression characteristics.Materials and Methods:Screening mammograms of 1399 women between May 2014 and May 2015 were evaluated by using Volpara 4th and 5th version. First 379 mammograms were assessed according to ACR BI-RAD...

Objective: Premenopausal women with breast cancer are at risk of developing ovarian failure after chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the negative effects of systemic chemotherapy on ovarian function in premenoupausal women with breast cancer. Materials and methods: Thirty-one premenopausal women with operable breast cancer ag...

Introduction: High expression of immune checkpoint receptors in tumor microenvironment reduces antitumor immunity and cause immune evasion of tumor cells. In recent years, immunotherapy trials using PD-1 or PDL-1 inhibitors in advanced triple negative (TN) breast cancer evolved very rapidly. The differential expression of novel immune checkpoint re...

Background. The MF07-01 trial is a multicenter randomized study comparing locoregional treatment (LRT) followed by systemic therapy (ST) with ST alone in de novo Stage IV breast cancer (BC) patients. Aim: To evaluate and finalize the survival data of LRT in patients with the diagnosis of de novo Stage IV BC. Methods. At initial diagnosis, patients...

PURPOSE Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women, and there is a great variability in surgical practice for treating that cancer in different countries. The aims of this study were to analyze the effect of guidelines from the Turkish Federation of Breast Diseases Societies on academic institutions that have breast centers and to evaluate...

Objectives Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been determined as a new prognostic indicator of immunotherapy response in breast cancer (BC). The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of imaging features in predicting the TIL levels in invasive BC patients. Methods A total of 158 patients with invasive BC were included in ou...

Objective: For locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) patients, neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (NHT) can be administered as primary treatment or simultaneously with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT). Various publications emphasized that this approach may increase pathologic complete response (pCR) rates. We aim to assess the pCR rates of our patients tha...

Objective: Skin sparing techniques with implants are increasingly used in breast cancer surgery. The aim of this study is to assess clinical outcomes of patients with pre-pectoral implants (PPI) and sub-pectoral implants (SPI). Materials and Methods: Between May 2017 and May 2019, patients with a diagnosis of operable breast cancer and underwent ma...

Background The MF07-01 trial is a multicenter randomized study comparing locoregional treatment (LRT) followed by systemic therapy (ST) with ST alone in de novo stage IV breast cancer (BC) patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the importance of LRT in patients who lived at least 5 years after the diagnosis of de novo Stage IV BC. Methods...