title: Prognostic factors associated with survival after breast cancer recurrence.
abstract: Factors associated with disease-free interval after the primary treatment and survival after a recurrence of breast cancer were studied in 331 female breast cancer patients treated in 1976-1980. Within five years after the primary treatment, recurrence occurred in 131 patients. The observation time of these patients after recurrence was from few weeks to twelve years. Twenty-nine patients were alive at the end of the follow-up. The average disease-free time was 2 years. The clinical stage of the disease in this material was not significantly associated with the disease-free interval. The median survival time after recurrence was 2.7 years when only breast cancer related deaths were included. Survival was significantly better for patients with primarily stage I disease than for patients with primarily stage II-IV disease. The size of the primary tumour was not significantly associated with survival after recurrence. The patients with loco-regional recurrence survived almost significantly better than those with distant recurrence. The disease-free time correlated positively with survival after a recurrence. The present study confirms the view that breast cancer includes several subgroups with a different type of clinical course.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Surgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Leivonen
authors.forename: T V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Kalima
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence