Characteristics of Late Recurrent Breast Cancers More than 5 Years after Primary Treatment

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 (P0.05). 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 (P0.05). CONCLUSION: The positive hormone receptor of breast cancer is a good early prognostic factor that can also predict late recurrences.