Breast cancer followed by corpus cancer: is there a higher risk for aggressive histologic subtypes?
OBJECTIVE
To analyze corpus cancer patients with a breast cancer history for risk of developing aggressive uterine histologic types.


METHODS
Corpus cancer patients with a history of breast cancer were identified from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database from 1988 to 2001. Demographics, clinico-pathologic, and survival data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and logistic regression analyses.


RESULTS
Of 52,109 women diagnosed with corpus cancer, 1922 had a history of breast cancer. Women with a history of breast cancer had a significantly higher proportion of uterine papillary serous carcinomas (UPSC) and sarcomas compared to those without a breast cancer history (9.4% vs. 6.3% for UPSC and 10.3% vs. 8.4% for sarcoma; P < 0.001). Patients with endometrioid or sarcoma of the uterus after breast cancer had significantly worse 5-year survivals than patients without a breast cancer history (84.4% vs. 90.5%; P < 0.001 and 49.0% vs. 63.6%, P < 0.001, respectively). Older age, advanced stage, lack of surgery and radiation treatment, poor histologic types, and history of breast cancer were independent prognostic factors for poorer survival.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the proportional incidence of UPSC and sarcoma was significantly higher in women with a breast cancer history. These findings highlight the association of breast cancer and high-risk corpus cancer subtypes.
Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford Cancer Center 875 Blake Wilbur Drive, MC 5827, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. johnchan@stanford.edu
John K
JK
Chan
Michael R
MR
Manuel
Michael K
MK
Cheung
Kathryn
K
Osann
Amreen
A
Husain
Nelson N
NN
Teng
Anjali
A
Rao
Robert W
RW
Carlson
Alice S
AS
Whittemore
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*