Pattern of local-regional recurrence in patient with early breast cancer after mastectomy: an analysis of 357 cases at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

ABSTRACT

A retrospective review was performed on 357 patients with early stage I-IIIA operable breast cancer who were treated with mastectomy and referred to the clinic at the Division of Radiation Therapy, Department of Radiology, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital between Jan 1991 and Dec 2001. Patients characteristics, treatment modalities and pattern of local and regional failure were evaluated. The median and mean age in the present study were 49 and 50.2 years, respectively. Stage I, II and IIIA were 10.9%, 79.6% and 9.5%, respectively. One hundred and ninety-seven patients (55.2%) received postoperative radiation therapy (RT). Adjuvant chemotherapy was given in 247 patients (69.2%) while 122 patients (34.2%) received adjuvant hormonal therapy. Sixty one patients (17.1%) received both adjuvant chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. However, 12.6% (45/357) did not receive any adjuvant treatment. Median follow up time was 42.6 months (range 6-136 months). Ipsilateral supraclavicular node and chest wall were the most common sites of local-regional recurrence. The chest wall recurrence rate was 10.4% (37/357), which was 16.9% (27/160) in the non postoperative radiation (No RT) group and 5.1% (10/197) in the postoperative radiation (RT) group. For ispilateral supraclavicular node, the recurrence rate was 10.6% (38/357), which was 15.6% (25/160) and 6.6% (13/197) for non RT and RT groups, respectively. The incidence of ipsilateral axilla, ipsilateral internal mammary node and ipsilateral infraclavicular node recurrence rate were 4.2%, 3.6% and 0.8%, respectively. Overall, chest wall and ipsilateral supraclavicular node were the most common sites of local-regional recurrence in early stage operable breast cancer who underwent mastectomy Postoperative adjuvant radiation therapy decreased the risk of local-regional recurrence.