Clinical characteristics and ultrasonographic features of local chest wall tumor recurrence after mastectomy for breast cancer / 中华医学超声杂志（电子版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the ultrasonographic features of local chest wall tumor recurrence after mastectomy for breast cancer and its clinical and histopathological characteristics. Methods The ultrasonographic features, clinical and histopathological characteristics of 27 patients with local chest wall tumor recurrence after mastectomy confirmed histopathologically were retrospectively reviewed. Results The disease-free intervals of twenty-seven patients ranged from 3 to 129 months [mean (31.9±31.4) months]. Most of the recurrence(18/27, 66.7%) occurred within 3 years after mastectomy. The clinical manifestations were7 cases (7/27, 25.9%) with regional skin redness and swelling, red rash or ulceration on chest wall associated with or without palpable mass, 20 cases(20/27, 74.1%) with chest wall palpable masses without obvious skin change. On ultrasonography, 2 cases showed diffuse inifltrative type with ill-deifned inhomogeneous hypoechoic lesion and skin thickening. And twenty-ifve cases(43 lesions) showed mass type with a lesion size range of 5.4-114.7 mm [mean (24.4±21.6) mm]. Among them, 32 lesions were located near to the operation incision scar, 36 involved muscle layer, 38 were hypoechoic, 31 had irregular shape, 24 had indistinct margin, and 31 had blood lfow signal. In addition, calciifcation, halo, and taller-than-wide shape were absent in all 43 lesions. Conclusions The tumor recurrence often occurred within 3 years after mastectomy in high-risk patients. Ultrasonographic feature of chest wall recurrent lesion is of great value in the diagnosis.