Breast Carcinosarcomas.
OBJECTIVE
Carcinosarcomas of the breast are rare and aggressive breast tumors. The optimal treatment strategies and the classification of these difficult to diagnose tumors are not clear in the literature due to their very low incidence. In this study, we aimed to evaluate patients who were operated on for breast carcinosarcoma and discuss the current literature.


METHODS
Ten patients who were treated with a diagnosis of breast carcinosarcoma between January 2000 - March 2013 at the Izmir Bozyaka Teaching and Training Hospital General Surgery Clinics were retrospectively analyzed.


RESULTS
The mean age of the patients was 59.7 (±13.4) years. Eight patients underwent modified radical mastectomy, one patient lumpectomy and one patient breast conserving surgery + sentinel lymph node biopsy procedures. The TNM stage of patients were identified as stage 1 in 2 patients, stage 2 in 6 patients, and stage 3 in 2 patients. 60-month disease-free survival rate was 52.5% (±18.6). The overall survival rate was 53.3% (±20.5). Four patients died during follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
It is reported that the prognosis of carcinosarcomas are as poor as triple negative epithelial tumors. In contrast to the literature, in our study the disease-free and overall survival rates according to stage were not different from epithelial tumors. In this regard, prospective studies including more patients are required.
Department of General Surgery, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Savaş
S
Yakan
Department of General Surgery, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Erdem
E
Sarı
Department of General Surgery, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Nazif
N
Erkan
Department of General Surgery, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Mehmet
M
Yıldırım
Department of Pathology, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Enver
E
Vardar
Department of General Surgery, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Ali
A
Coşkun
Department of General Surgery, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Durmuş Ali
DA
Çetin
Department of Pathology, İzmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Nükhet
N
Eliyatkın
Breast; carcinosarcoma; metaplasia