Characteristics of Late Recurrent Breast Cancers More than 5 Years after Primary Treatment.
- Author:
Hyun Jin KIM
1
;
Su Hwan KANG
;
Soo Jung LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Korea. crystallee@medical.yu.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Breast cancer;
Recurrence;
Hormonal receptor
- MeSH:
Breast Neoplasms;
Breast*;
Female;
Humans;
Prognosis;
Recurrence
- From:Journal of the Korean Surgical Society
2007;73(2):96-102
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: The conventional prognostic factors for breast cancer reflect the early short-term prognosis. However, many of these factors cannot predict the long-term prognosis accurately. Therefore, this study evaluated the characteristics of breast cancer that would indicate the development of delayed recurrences after primary treatment. METHODS: Eight hundred and forty nine female breast cancer patients were divided into two groups, an early recurrent (within 5 years) and a late recurrent group (after 5 years). Each conventional prognostic factor including the histological grade (HG), nuclear grade (NG), lympho-vascular invasion (LVI), status of hormonal receptor, p53 and c-erbB2 were compared to identify any factor that would show significant difference. RESULTS: The overall recurrence rate was 14.2% (121/849), which was significantly higher in patients with a high TNM stage, high HG and NG, positive LVI, negative receptor status and expression of p53 (P<0.05). The mean disease free interval was 28.2 months. In the recurred patients, 90.1% (109/121) recurred within 5 years, and 9.9% (12/121) recurred after 5 years of treatment. There was a similar distribution of most prognostic factors in the two groups (P>0.05). However, the positive rate of the hormonal receptor was significantly higher in the late recurrent group (P=0.019). All these factors, except for c-erbB2 over-expression, were independent prognostic factors for a recurrence within 5 years (P<0.05) but the significance of these factors disappeared after that time (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The positive hormone receptor of breast cancer is a good early prognostic factor that can also predict late recurrences.
