PURPOSE: To determine the effects of new breast cancer treatments and to provide a baseline for monitoring the development of breast cancer in Korean women, we conducted an analysis at our institution to determine long-term clinicopathological features, survival rates, and prognostic factors. MATERIALA AND METHODS: This study retrospectively analyzed 2,403 patients between Sep 1994 and Dec 2002, who underwent breast cancer surgery at Samsung Medical Center in Korea. Demographic data, pathologic records and surgical records were collected. RESULTS: After a median follow-up duration of 121.9 (range: 2-158.1) months, the 5-year disease free survival (DFS) was 82.8% and the 10-year DFS was 74.7%. The 5-year and 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were 89.4% and 82.9%, respectively. Using multivariate analyses, we determined that the nodal status (p < 0.001), angioinvasion (p < 0.001), positive PR (p < 0.001), and C-erb-B2 (p < 0.001) were independent prognostic factors for OS. The frequency of breast conserving surgery was 33.9% before Dec 1999, and increased up to 44.1% by year Dec 2002. CONCLUSION: Most of the prognostic variables and clinical characteristics of the Korean breast cancer patients were similar to those reported for Western populations. However, the age distribution in Korean patients seemed to be different from that in patients from Western countries.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Breast Neoplasms/mortality/pathology/*surgery ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meiers Estimate ; Korea ; Mastectomy/*methods/statistics & numerical data ; Mastectomy, Segmental/*methods/statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate

OBJECTIVETo study the relative factors of local recurrence and distant metastasis after breast-conserving therapy (BCT) for patients with breast cancer.

METHODSThe data on 174 patients with primary breast cancer who had been treated by BCT were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were followed up for 12 to 196 months with a rate of 97.13% (169/174).

RESULTSNine patients showed local recurrence and 14 patients, distant metastasis. The 3-year recurrence rate was 3.79% (5/132), the the 5-year metastasis rate was 10.99% (10/91), and the 5-year survival rate was 92.31% (84/91). Those 3-year recurrence rate for patients without radiotherapy (12.12%) was significantly higher than that with radiotherapy (1.01%), (chi(2) = 5.61, P < 0.05). In patients with node-positive, the the 5-year metastasis rate for patients without chemotherapy (44.44%) was higher than that for those with chemotherapy (6.67%), (P < 0.05). Positive marginal status was associated with local recurrence (P < 0.01). Age at diagnosis of patient with breast cancer (

CONCLUSIONSRadiotherapy must be given after BCT. The patients with positive margin should be treated by re-excision or by mastectomy. Those with young age, node- positive and histological grade III should receive adjuvant chemotherapy.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Breast Neoplasms ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; methods ; statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinical characteristics, efficiency of treatment and potential prognostic factors of breast cancer patients with liver metastases (BCLM).

METHODSThe data of clinical characteristics, response to treatment and survival were retrospectively analyzed in 152 breast cancer patients with liver metastasis using SPSS 11.5.

RESULTSThe median disease free survival (DFS), the median survival of recurrence (MSR) and median time to progress (TTP) of this series was 21 months, 16 months and 7.4 months, respectively. The response rate in chemotherapy group was higher than that in the transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) group (37.7% vs. 53%, P = 0. 039). The TTP was longer (7 m vs. 10 m, P = 0.048) and the response rate (63.3% vs. 40.0%, P = 0.04) in taxanes-based chemotherapy group was significantly higher than that in non-taxanes-containing regimen. The MSR in patients with single liver metastases treated by TACE was longer than that by chemotherapy (16 m vs. 30 m, P = 0.0052), but it was not observed in the patients with multiple metastases. Pathological tumor size (PT) and axillary lymph node status at diagnosis, negative estrogen receptor (ER) status, abnormal ALT level induced by liver metastases, metastastic tumor size were significantly correlated with shorter survival.

CONCLUSIONThe effective chemotherapy especially the taxane-containing regimen and TACE may improve outcome for breast cancer patient with liver metastasis.

Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Breast ; drug effects ; pathology ; surgery ; Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; therapy ; Bridged-Ring Compounds ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Chemoembolization, Therapeutic ; methods ; statistics & numerical data ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Disease Progression ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; secondary ; therapy ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Mastectomy ; methods ; statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Receptors, Estrogen ; metabolism ; Retrospective Studies ; Taxoids ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinicopathological features, parameters of molecular biology, survival rate, and prognostic factors in breast cancer patients with vascular invasion.

METHODSThe data of 262 breast cancer patients with vascular invasion surgically treated between January 1995 and December 2003 in our institution were retrospectively analyzed. Clinicopathological characteristics, parameters of molecular biology, disease free survival rate and overall survival rate were surveyed.

RESULTSOf all breast cancer patients registered in our institution during the same period, these 262 breast cancer patients with vascular invasion accounted for 5.3% with a median age of 43 years. The major pathological type was invasive ductal carcinoma (93.3%). The stages included stage I in 5% , stage II 31. 3% , stage III 58.8% , stage IV 1.1% , and unknown 3.8%. Immunohistochemical staining showed that ER positive in 67.7%, PR(+) 68.0%, p53(+) 54.2%, PCNA(+) 93.3%, c-erbB2( +++) 20.8% and c-erbB2(++) 16.9%. The 5-year and 10-year cumulative disease free survival and overall survival were 57.6% , 50.7% and 62.8%, 52.9% , respectively. The factors which were found to compromise disease free survival were the tumor size, lymph node status, stage, and radiotherapy in the univariate analysis, and for overall survival, were the tumor size, lymph node status, stage, location of vascular invasion and radiotherapy. The tumor size and radiotherapy were found to be independent prognostic factors for disease free survival and overall survival in the multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONBreast cancers with vascular invasion have poor biological behavior though having been treated by surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The independent prognostic factors of such patients are tumor size and radiotherapy. Anti-angiogenesis and antilymphangiogenesis may gradually become promising target treatment for such patient.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; therapy ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; metabolism ; pathology ; therapy ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; statistics & numerical data ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Mastectomy ; methods ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; metabolism ; pathology ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; metabolism ; Receptors, Estrogen ; metabolism ; Receptors, Progesterone ; metabolism ; Retrospective Studies ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 ; metabolism