Survival following local skin recurrence after mastectomy

Seventy-three patients with breast cancer, treated by radical mastectomy, who subsequently developed a local skin recurrence without clinical evidence of disseminated disease, have been reviewed. There were significant differences between the survival of patients with single and multiple recurrences. Only 10 per cent of those with multiple lesions survived 5 years, and none was alive at 10 years, whereas 42 per cent of those with single lesions survived 5 years and 22 per cent were alive and well at 10 years' postrecurrence. Adequate local treatment of a single skin nodule may enable a subset of patients to survive without subsequent development of breast cancer metastases.