Patterns of metastasis and natural courses of breast carcinoma

Breast carcinoma is known to metastatize to all organs. In order to understand the patterns of spread and natural courses, this review summarizes detailed studies of patients with various stages of the disease. After treatment of early breast carcinoma (stage I, II, and some III), the recurrent lesion can be classified as local, regional, distant, or combinations thereof. The sites of dissemination of patients presenting with stage IV disease and of those who had autopsy after diagnosis of breast cancer are presented for comparison. Clinicopathological factors that influence the relative incidence, specific site, subsequent event, and prognosis of recurrent and metastatic breast cancers are discussed.