Loco-regional recurrence in 2064 patients with breast cancer treated with mastectomy without adjuvant radiotherapy.
BACKGROUND
We investigated the incidence of loco-regional recurrence in a sub-group of patients who underwent mastectomy without adjuvant radiotherapy to evaluate the effect of each specific clinical or pathological parameter that could be associated with a higher local relapse rate.


METHODS
Two thousand and sixty-four patients were treated from January 1971 to December 2003 at the University of Florence.


RESULTS
At the time of analysis 18.3% of patients (378/2064) had isolated loco-regional failures. Univariate analysis showed an association of borderline statistical significance with pathological tumour size. Elderly age at diagnosis had a low incidence of local recurrence but the results did not reach statistical significant. The number of positive axillary lymph node did not show any influence for local recurrence.


CONCLUSIONS
In our series we noted a higher relapse rate only related to the pathological tumour size without any correlation with number of positive axillary nodes. Radiotherapy after mastectomy still remains controversial, but in our series the number of positive axillary lymph node did not seem enough to justify adjuvant treatment.
Livi
L
L
Department of Radiotherapy - Oncology, Viale Morgagni no 85, Florence University, 50134, Florence, Italy. l.livi@dfc.unifi.it
Saieva
C
C
Detti
B
B
Meattini
I
I
Susini
T
T
Paiar
F
F
Mileo
A
A
Rampini
A
A
Bruni
A
A
Petrucci
A
A
Biti
G P
GP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001365:Axilla / Q000601:surgery; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents