[Clinical course of recurrent and metastatic disease in breast cancer]

Medical records of 434 patients with stage I, II and III breast cancer and a minimum follow up of 5 years were reviewed. Patients with distant metastasis and failure of regional therapy were identified. 94 of 434 patients treated developed failure. Median time for regional failure in stages I and II was 2.5 years, and 3 years for development of distant metastasis. Bone metastasis developed later than elsewhere in all states. Metastasis were observed before 5 years of follow up in all cases who developed this complication. Survival for patients with regional recurrence was 65% at 5 years, while survival for patients with metastasis was less than 20% in the same period. After development of metastasis, survival was no different according to initial stage of the tumor. We conclude that patients with breast cancer and regional recurrence have a reasonably good prognosis. This worsens drastically if distant metastasis develop.