Postmastectomy locoregional recurrence and recurrence-free survival in breast cancer patients

One essential outcome after breast cancer treatment is recurrence of the disease. Treatment decision is based on assessment of prognostic factors of breast cancer recurrence. This study was to investigate the prognostic factors for postmastectomy locoregional recurrence (LRR) and survival in those patients.

114 patients undergoing mastectomy and adjuvant radiotherapy in Cancer Institute of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were retrospectively reviewed between 1996 and 2008. All cases were followed up after initial treatment of patients with breast cancer via regular visit (annually) for discovering the LRR. Cumulative recurrence free survival (RFS) was determined using the Kaplan-Meier method, with univariate comparisons between groups through the log-rank test. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis.

The median follow up time was 84 months (range 2-140). Twenty-three (20.2%) patients developed LRR. Cumulative RFS rate at 2.5 years and 5 years were 86% (95%CI, 81-91) and 82.5% (95%CI, 77-87) respectively. Mean RFS was 116.50 +/- 4.43 months (range, 107.82 - 125.12 months, 95%CI). At univariate and multivariate analysis, factors had not any influence on the LRR.

Despite use of adjuvant therapies during the study, we found a LRR rate after mastectomy of 20.2%. Therefore, for patients with LRR without evidence of distant disease, aggressive multimodality therapy is warranted.