Multimodal therapy in locally advanced breast carcinoma

Among 879 patients treated for breast cancer between 1975 and 1984, advanced disease was found in 125 (14%). A subgroup of 34 (4%) presented with untreated locally advanced disease without demonstrable distant metastases at the time of diagnosis (stage IIIB = T4abed, NX-2,MO). During the first 5 years (1975 through 1979), 17 patients were treated primarily with sequential radiotherapy and chemotherapy (Group A). From 1980 to 1984 (Group B), the management consisted of four courses of induction multi-drug chemotherapy followed primarily by mastectomy and additional chemotherapy. The mean follow-up for the most recent group (Group B) is 48 months. Follow-up was complete. While the local disease control rate was the same for both groups (76%), the survival was remarkably different. Group A patients experienced a median survival of 15 months, and only one survived 5 years. In Group B, the median survival was 56 months with nine patients (53%) alive between 40 and 76 months, seven (41%) of whom are 5-year survivors. While the overall mortality of patients with inflammatory breast cancer was greater in both groups when compared with the group with noninflammatory disease, the survival of patients in Group B was better than in Group A for both inflammatory and noninflammatory cancers (p less than 0.01). Estrogen receptor, nodal, and menopausal status did not influence survival. These data suggest that neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival for patients with stage IIIB breast carcinoma and delays the establishment or progression of distant metastases. Mastectomy is an important component in the treatment of this disease.     

Surgical closure of chest wall in noninflammatory locally advanced breast carcinoma with ulceration of the skin

Patients with noninflammatory locally advanced breast cancer with ulceration of skin or muscle or parietal wall infiltration, better named "extended locally advanced breast cancer," may require cancer surgery and plastic reconstruction of the chest wall after multidisciplinary evaluation. The decision is made to improve quality of life, independently of prognosis, and severity of the disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate the best method for surgical closure of the chest wall and to check whether ablative surgery is an appropriate procedure in regards to the treatment of cancer. From October 1997 to June 2006, 27 patients with noninflammatory extended locally advanced breast cancer with ulceration of the skin, who were not candidate or did not respond to a neo-adjuvant treatment, underwent radical mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Sixteen patients (59%) were affected by primary tumors of the breast, and eleven patients (41%) had local recurrence after mastectomy or conservative breast surgery. Two main techniques were used for breast reconstruction: transverse rectus-abdominis musculo cutaneous flap in 19 patients (70%), and a fasciocutaneous flap in eight patients (30%). The best procedure in each patient was chosen according to the extent of skin loss or previous radiotherapy to the chest wall. Fourteen patients (52%) died during the follow-up and the median length of survival was 16 months (range 3-79) in transverse rectus-abdominis musculo cutaneous group and 4 months (range 2-23) in fasciocutaneous flap group. The median length of follow-up after treatment for patients still alive was 32.5 months (range 0-96) in transverse rectus-abdominis musculo cutaneous flap group, and 18 months (range 8-41) in fasciocutaneous flap group. At the end of the follow-up, 10 patients were alive without evidence of disease and three patients developed metastatic lesion or local recurrence. The longest recorded disease free interval for a patient still alive and tumor free was 96 months. Only three patients (11%) had local complications: two wound infections and one partial necrosis of the transverse rectus-abdominis musculo cutaneous flap. Median hospital stay was 7 days (range 3-13) for transverse rectus-abdominis musculo cutaneous and 6 days (range 3-13) for fasciocutaneous flap. Our results confirmed that transverse rectus-abdominis musculo cutaneous group and fasciocutaneous flap flaps are good reconstructive options in patients with extended locally advanced breast cancer. Quality of life has improved in this group of patients, with acceptable survival periods and in some cases very important survival rates.     

Surgical adjuvant treatment of locally advanced breast cancer.

The reported incidence of local recurrence after mastectomy for locally advanced breast cancer (TNM Stage III and IV) is between 30% and 50%. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of radiation therapy (XRT) followed by total mastectomy on the incidence of local recurrence in patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Fifty-three patients who presented with locally advanced breast cancer, without distant metastases, were treated with XRT (4500-5000 R) to the breast, chest wall, and regional lymph nodes. Five weeks after completion of XRT, total mastectomy was performed. There were no operative deaths. The complications that occurred in 22 patients after surgery were flap necrosis, wound infection, and seroma. Patients have been followed from 3 to 134 months. Twenty-five patients are alive (3-134 months), 12 free of disease; 28 patients have died with distant metastases (6-67 months). Isolated local recurrence occurred in only two patients. Four patients had local and distant recurrence (total local recurrence is 6/53). The remaining patients all developed distant metastases. We have devised a treatment strategy which significantly decreases the incidence of local recurrence in patients with locally advanced breast cancer. However, the rapid appearance of distant metastases emphasizes the need for systemically active therapy in patients with locally advanced breast cancer.     

Local recurrence in patients with large and locally advanced breast cancer treated with primary chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Primary chemotherapy is being given in the treatment of large and locally advanced breast cancers, but a major concern is local relapse after therapy. This paper has examined patients treated with primary chemotherapy and surgery (either breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy) and has examined the role of factors which may indicate those patients who are subsequently more likely to experience local recurrence of disease. METHODS: A consecutive series of 173 women, with data available for 166 of these, presenting with large and locally advanced breast cancer (T2>/=4 cm, T3, T4, or N2) were treated with primary chemotherapy comprising cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, and prednisolone and then surgery (either conservation or mastectomy with axillary surgery) followed by radiotherapy were examined. RESULTS: The clinical response rate of these patients was 75% (21% complete and 54% partial), with a complete pathological response rate of 15%. A total of 10 patients (6%) experienced local disease relapse, and the median time to relapse was 14 months (ranging from 3 to 40). The median survival in this group was 27 months (ranging from 13 to 78). In patients having breast conservation surgery, local recurrence occurred in 2%, and in those undergoing mastectomy 7% experience local relapse of disease. Factors predicting patients most likely to experience local recurrence were poor clinical response and residual axillary nodal disease after chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Excellent local control of disease can be achieved in patients with large and locally advanced breast cancers using a combination of primary chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. However, the presence of residual tumor in the axillary lymph nodes after chemotherapy is a predictor of local recurrence and patients with a better clinical response were also less likely to experience local disease recurrence. The size and degree of pathological response did not predict patients most likely to experience recurrence of disease.     

Surgery is associated with lower morbidity and longer survival in elderly breast cancer patients over 80

As breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in the elderly with a peak incidence of 1 in 10 by the age of 80, it is important to establish optimum therapy in this group. We conducted a case note-based retrospective study of all elderly primary breast cancer patients aged 80 and above between 1992 and 2002. The type of treatment, complications, disease progression, recurrence, and overall survival were recorded. In all 110 patients aged 80 and above were treated for primary breast cancer, with 32 patients having advanced disease. Of these, 62 patients received primary endocrine treatment. 48 patients underwent surgery with 30 patients undergoing mastectomy. At follow-up, 34 patients suffered disease progression in the primary endocrine treatment group and three patients had local recurrence in the surgical group. The Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed significantly better survival in the surgical treatment group when compared with the primary endocrine treatment group, both in the early disease (n = 41; median survival: 71 months; compared to n = 37; median survival: 42 months; p = 0.0002) and the advanced disease (n = 7; median survival: 48 months; compared to n = 25; median survival: 36 months; p = 0.03). Prompt surgery and adjuvant treatment can decrease relapse and improve survival even in patients older than 80 years.     

Mastectomy as an adjunct to combination chemotherapy.

Three patients with metastatic breast carcinoma who had untreated locally advanced primary tumors were treated initially with combination chemotherapy followed by hygienic mastectomy. There was marked regression of the primary tumor in each case after chemotherapy, allowing for a technically simpler mastectomy without skin grafts. There were no serious postoperative complications, or delay in the resumption of systemic chemotherapy in any of them. The postoperative chemotherapy produced complete disappearance of the distant metastases and the patients remain clinically free of disease without local recurrence for 21, 10, and 7 months, respectively. One of these patients had inflammatory carcinoma and did well with this combined approach. These findings suggest a rationale for such an approach in patients with inflammatory carcinoma and may be applicable to patients with stage III breast cancer in whom the primary tumors are locally advanced and technically difficult to resect.     

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil (CAF) or cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) in 69 cases of locally advanced (stage IIIb) breast cancer.

Sixty nine patients with a median age of 45 years, 62.3 per cent of whom were premenopausal, with locally advanced breast cancer (T 4, N 0-3, M 0; Stage IIIb) were treated with 3 cycles of either neoadjuvant cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil, being the CAF group: 36 patients, or cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil, being the CMF group: 33 patients. Patients achieving complete response or with residual disease of less than 2 cm in diameter received radical radiotherapy while those with more residual disease underwent radical mastectomy. Nine cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy were administered. Complete responses and disease control by radiotherapy with complete breast preservation were more frequently observed after CAF than CMF, being 25 per cent vs 3 per cent (p = 0.025) and 48.5 per cent vs 12 per cent (p = 0.002), respectively. Overall response rates, adverse effects, disease control following radiotherapy/surgery, local relapses and metastases were similar for both regimes. Relapsing patients were young, with a median age of 38 years, 68.4 per cent of relapses occurred at metastatic sites and 42 per cent of relapses occurred during adjuvant chemotherapy. This study suggests that in locally advanced breast cancer, a greater proportion of patients can be rendered disease free after neoadjuvant CAF and radiotherapy compared to neoadjuvant CMF and radiotherapy.     

Breast conservation in patients with multiple ipsilateral synchronous cancers

BACKGROUND: Because breast cancer survival after breast conservation has proved comparable to mastectomy, contraindications to mastectomy are increasingly being challenged. We treated the majority of our patients with multiple synchronous ipsilateral cancers with breast conservation and we compared them with patients who underwent mastectomy for comparable disease during the same interval. STUDY DESIGN: Patients with multiple ipsilateral synchronous breast cancers between 1989 and 2002 were identified from prospective databases maintained by us. A comparison was made between 36 patients treated with lumpectomy and 19 patients treated with mastectomy. RESULTS: There were no significant (all p values >0.2) differences between mastectomy and breast conservation patients in age, racial distribution, size of cancers, pathology, tumor differentiation, nodal involvement, or hormone receptor positivity. The majority of patients treated with breast conservation underwent at least one reexcision to obtain clear pathologic margins, and they were more likely to receive postoperative radiotherapy than patients treated with mastectomy. There were no significant differences in the local (97% versus 100%, p = 0.54) or distant (97% versus 95%, p = 0.20) 5-year disease- free survival between the group treated with breast conservation and the group treated with mastectomy. One patient in each group developed distant metastases. One patient in the breast conservation group developed local recurrence at both primary sites simultaneously 39 months after lumpectomies. She is free of disease 78 months after mastectomy. The remaining 52 patients are alive and free of disease. CONCLUSIONS: Breast conservation is an effective treatment for patients with synchronous ipsilateral breast cancers.     

Effect of preoperative chemotherapy on mastectomy for locally advanced breast cancer

Mastectomy is frequently performed after intensive chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer. The effects of preoperative chemotherapy on the postoperative course and the timing of subsequent adjuvant therapy, however, have not been defined. We therefore reviewed the perioperative course of 54 patients undergoing mastectomy after combination (CAMFPT) chemotherapy for stage IIIA,B (IIIA - 25 pts; IIIB noninflammatory - 5 pts; IIIB inflammatory-24 patients) breast cancer. A median of 7 cycles (6 months) of chemotherapy was administered preoperatively. Mastectomy was performed a median of 20 days after last chemotherapy; white blood cell count (WBC) and platelet counts returned to normal limits preoperatively. Total mastectomy with or without axillary node dissection was performed in 53 patients, and a Halsted radical mastectomy in 1 patient. Negative margins on breast and/or axillary tissue were achieved in 47 patients (87.0%). Postoperative complications included skin flap necrosis in 8 patients (14.8%), seroma formation in 5 patients (9.3%), and wound infection in 1 patient (1.9%). Median operative blood loss (550 cc), hospital stay (8 days), and duration of wound catheter drainage (6 days) were comparable to published reports for modified radical mastectomy without preoperative chemotherapy. Systemic chemotherapy was resumed a median of 16 days after mastectomy, and radiotherapy started a median of 33 days after mastectomy. These findings indicate that intensive preoperative chemotherapy does not increase the hospital course or the postoperative complications of mastectomy for locally advanced breast cancer. In view of the current interest in treatment of stage I and II breast cancer with preoperative chemotherapy, this information may be useful in their management as well.     

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide,doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil (CAF) or cyclophosphamide,methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) in 69 cases of locally advanced (stage IIIb) breast cancer

Sixty nine patients with a median age of 45 years, 62.3 per cent of whom were premenopausal, with locally advanced breast cancer (T 4, N 0–3, M 0; Stage IIIb) were treated with 3 cycles of either neoadjuvant cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil, being the CAF group: 36 patients, or cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil, being the CMF group: 33 patients. Patients achieving complete response or with residual disease of <2 cm in diameter received radical radiotherapy while those with more residual disease underwent radical mastectomy. Nine cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy were administered. Complete responses and disease control by radiotherapy with complete breast preservation were more frequently observed after CAF than CMF, being 25 per centvs 3 per cent (p=0.025) and 48.5 per centvs 12 per cent (p=0.002), respectively. Overall response rates, adverse effects, disease control following radiotherapy/ surgery, local relapses and metastases were similar for both regimes. Relapsing patients were young, with a median age of 38 years, 68.4 per cent of relapses occurred at metastatic sites and 42 per cent of relapses occurred during adjuvant chemotherapy. This study suggests that in locally advanced breast cancer, a greater proportion of patients can be rendered disease free after neoadjuvant CAF and radiotherapy compared to neoadjuvant CMF and radiotherapy.     

Surgical Resection of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors After Treatment with Imatinib

Background Surgical resection of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) has been the most effective therapy for these rare tumors. Imatinib has been introduced as systemic therapy for locally advanced and metastatic GIST. In this study, the surgical resection rates and long-term outcomes of patients treated with preoperative imatinib for locally advanced primary, recurrent, or metastatic GISTs were evaluated. Methods Patients were retrospectively assessed for completeness of surgical resection and for disease-free and overall survival after resection. Results Forty-six patients underwent surgery after treatment with imatinib. Eleven were treated for locally advanced primary GISTs for a median of 11.9 months, followed by complete surgical resection. All eleven were alive at a median of 19.5 months, and ten were free of disease. Thirty-five patients were treated for recurrent or metastatic GIST. Of these, eleven underwent complete resection. Six of the eleven patients had recurrent disease at a median of 15.1 months. All eleven patients were alive at a median of 30.7 months. Patients with a partial radiographic tumor response to imatinib had significantly higher complete resection rates than patients with progressive disease (91% vs. 4%; P < .001). Of the 24 patients with incomplete resection, 18 initially responded to imatinib but were unable to undergo complete resection after they progressed before surgery. Conclusions Preoperative imatinib can decrease tumor volume and is associated with complete surgical resection in locally advanced primary GISTs. Early surgical intervention should be considered for imatinib-responsive recurrent or metastatic GIST, since complete resection is rarely achieved once tumor progression occurs. Presented in part at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology, Atlanta, GA, March 2005.     

Male breast carcinoma

Fifty men with primary breast carcinoma were seen between the years 1938 and 1983 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. In most patients, there was a significant delay between the onset of symptoms and seeking medical advice (mean, 21 months; range, 1-156). The vast majority of patients were treated by simple, modified radical, or radical mastectomy. Ten patients underwent incisional or excisional biopsy with or without radiation because of locally advanced disease or distant metastases. Survival was comparable in the groups of patients treated with simple mastectomy (mean, 70 months), modified radical mastectomy (mean, 61 months), and radical mastectomy (mean, 78 months). Local recurrence occurred in 25 per cent of all patients, and this rate was not dependent on the operation performed. The data suggest that modified radical mastectomy is adequate therapy for local control and staging of the disease without reducing survival from that observed after radical mastectomy.     

Conservative Surgery for Breast Carcinoma Associated with Pregnancy

Abstract: Thirty-five patients with pregnancy-associated breast carcinoma diagnosed between 1985 and 1995 were identified and characterized from a prospectively generated database. Twenty-two of these patients had stage 1 or 2 disease and were therefore potential candiates for conservative surgical management. The median age was 36 years. Two thirds of the patients were pregnant at the time of diagnosis; the median gestational age of the fetus at diagnosis was 7 months. Twenty-one of the 22 of the patients presented with a palpable mass. The majority of tumors were estrogen-receptor negative. Nine patients were treated with breast-conservation therapy, and 13 were treated with mastectomy. In the breast-conservation therapy group, there were three distant recurrences and no local recurrences with a median follow-up of 24 months. In the mastectomy group, two patients developed distant metastases and one developed a local recurrence with a median follow-up of 28 months. The results of breast-conservation therapy are similar to the results of mastectomy for stage 1 and 2 cancers associated with pregnancy. Therefore, breast-conservation therapy is an option for selected patients with pregnancy-associated breast cancer.     

Malignant lymphoma of the breast: a review of 13 cases.

Thirteen cases of primary malignant lymphoma of the breast are reported from a 15-year retrospective review of records. The ages ranged from 19 to 75 years. One patient had nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease and 12 had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Eleven patients were treated with local excision, followed by radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or both. One patient had mastectomy and chemotherapy, and one had local excision only. Four patients died 6 months to 7 years after initial diagnosis. One patient was alive and with disease 5 years later. The remainder were alive and free of disease 24 months to 9 years after presentation. Prognosis depended on the clinical stage and histologic grade of the lesion. Five-year survival was 72 per cent, which was slightly better than that observed in mammary carcinoma.     

Local Recurrence After Mastectomy for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

Abstract: Local recurrence after mastectomy for invasive cancer generally carries a poor prognosis. Local recurrence after mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is rare and its impact on survival is unknown. Sixty-eight patients were treated with mastectomy for DCIS at the Fox Chase Cancer Center between 1985 and 1996, and only one of these developed a chest wall recurrence. An additional five patients treated with mastectomy at other institutions and referred to Fox Chase after local recurrence were also identified. These six patients had only DCIS as their primary pathology. Four of the six patients were premenopausal (median age 42 years). The median interval to local recurrence was 5.0 years (2.8–9.3 years). The median follow-up from initial diagnosis was 10.5 years (4.3–26.7 years) and 5.2 years (1.4–17.6 years) from recurrence. All of the recurrences were invasive and treatment included wide local excision with radiotherapy in all of the patients followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for the premenopausal patients. None of the patients had metastatic disease at presentation. The disease-free survival from initial recurrence was 83% and 63% at 5 and 10 years, respectively. The 5- and 10-year survival following local recurrence was 80%. One patient died 3.6 years after recurrence with metastatic disease, while a second patient developed metastatic disease 11.8 years after her initial recurrence. The remaining four patients are alive (NED), ranging from 1.4 to 10.7 years following their local recurrence. Local recurrence following mastectomy for DCIS is rare, usually invasive, and may have a long interval to failure. Salvage using conventional multimodality therapy appears to result in long-term survival.     

Lobular carcinoma in situ: Observation without surgery as an appropriate therapy

Background: The finding of lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) in the breast has generally prompted treatment with unilateral or bilateral mastectomy. Most experts now feel that LCIS simply identifies a woman who is at high risk to develop future breast cancer and requires only close clinical and mammographic follow-up. This approach has been recommended at our institution for >15 years. This study defines the natural history of a population of women with LCIS who were treated by observation alone. Methods: Women with a pathologic diagnosis of LCIS were identified by tumor registry search. Records and pathology were reviewed. Radiographic-pathologic correlation was performed on women who had undergone mammographic-localized breast biopsies. One hundred forty-nine women with LCIS were identified. Eighty four were excluded from analysis because of synchronous invasive cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The remaining 65 women formed the basis of this report. Results: Sixty-five women with LCIS were treated from 1963 through 1990. Median follow-up was 83 months. No women were lost to follow-up. Median age at diagnosis was 48 years (range 37–81), and 32% had a family history of breast cancer. Clinical findings leading to biopsy were breast mass in 43, nipple discharge in three, and mammographic abnormality in 19. Mammographic-pathologic correlation showed that the focus of LCIS in these 19 women was not associated with the mammographic abnormality. Fourteen of 65 women underwent mastectomy after diagnosis of LCIS (nine ipsilateral, five bilateral). Fifty-one of 65 women elected observation alone. In the observation group, 13 of 51 women (25%) underwent a second breast biopsy for a clinical or mammographic abnormality during the follow-up period. The median interval to biopsy was 50 months. Pathology was benign in two, LCIS in seven, DCIS in one, and invasive cancer in three. All seven women with LCIS on subsequent biopsy continued with observation and none developed breast cancer. All four cancers were detected by mammography without an associated palpable mass. Three of four cancer masses were <1 cm in diameter. The woman with DCIS was 47 years of age and developed DCIS 106 months after LCIS diagnosis. She was treated by total mastectomy and is disease free 108 months later. The three women with invasive cancer developed this at 41, 53, and 69 months after diagnosis of LCIS. All were <50 years of age. All three cancers were in the same breast as the previous LCIS. Two women were treated by modified radical mastectomy, and the third had wide excision/axillary dissection followed by radiation therapy. They are alive and disease-free at 16, 82, and 116 months. Conclusions: Four of 51 women treated with observation alone after diagnosis of LCIS developed breast cancer. All were detected by screening at an early stage. LCIS appeared to be an incidental finding on biopsy of mammographic abnormalities. The policy of observation alone for the finding of LCIS spares women mastectomy. Furthermore, cancers that develop in follow-up are likely to be detected at an early stage and be amenable to curative therapy. Observation alone is appropriate treatment for women with LCIS. Presented at the 46th Annual Cancer Symposium of the Society of Surgical Oncology. Los Angeles, California, March 18–21, 1993.     

Long-term survival of a patient with primarily chemo-resistant metastatic breast cancer treated with medroxyprogesterone acetate

The prognosis of breast cancer patients with liver metastases is extremely poor. Here we present the case of a 66-year-old female breast cancer patient with multiple liver metastases diagnosed 2 years after a radical modified mastectomy followed by adjuvant tamoxifen. At progression, anthracycline-based chemotherapy was administered, but a CT scan following two cycles of FEC (5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide) showed progression of the liver metastases. Chemotherapy was therefore switched to medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA). After 3 months the patient's general status improved, and disease stabilization was observed at the next CT scan. A further 4 months of MPA treatment resulted in complete response of all liver lesions. Treatment with oral MPA was continued for 4 years. At present, 11 years after the diagnosis of metastatic liver involvement, the patient is alive, free of cancer, and fully ambulatory. Despite bulky visceral disease and chemoresistance, hormonal treatment with MPA resulted in a spectacular and long-lasting response.     

The Role of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy in Invasive Lobular Carcinoma

Abstract: Invasive lobular carcinoma has been associated with an increased risk of contralateral breast disease. Controversy exists regarding the use of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy versus careful observation of the contralateral breast. Our objective was to determine the incidence of occult cancer in the contralateral breast and to assess whether contralateral prophylactic mastectomy improves patient survival. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 133 patients treated surgically for invasive lobular carcinoma between January 1, 1978, and December 31, 1993. The median age was 54 years (range, 24–82 years). The distribution of patients by stage was as follows: stage 1, 29%; stage IIa, 36%; stage IIb, 20%; stage IIIa, 11%; stage IIIb, 3%; and unknown, 1%. The median follow-up was 68 months (range, 13–178 months). Group comparisons were performed using log-rank analysis and survival curves were constructed by the method of Kaplan and Meier. Eighteen patients underwent contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. Among these patients there were no cases of invasive cancer and only 3 (17%) cases of lobular carcinoma in situ in the contralateral breast. Three patients who underwent contralateral prophylactic mastectomy later developed distant metastases from the original ipsilateral breast cancer. Of the 115 patients managed conservatively, 3 (3%) developed contralateral disease at 11, 34, and 101 months. Twenty-five patients developed distant disease. Overall survival in the contralateral prophylactic mastectomy group did not differ significantly from the group treated conservatively (p = 0.90). We conclude that careful observation with a yearly mammogram and physical examination of the contralateral breast is appropriate management for patients with invasive lobular carcinoma.     

Adenoid cystic breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Adenoid cystic carcinoma is a rare type of breast cancer that is generally reported in individual case reports or as series from major referral centers. To characterize early diagnostic criteria for adenoid cystic carcinoma and to determine whether breast-preserving surgery with radiotherapy is as effective as mastectomy for eradicating the disease, we reviewed clinical records of a large series of patients treated for adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast at a large health maintenance organization (HMO) that includes primary care facilities and referral centers. METHODS: Using the data bank of the Northern California Cancer Registry of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region (KPNCR), we retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients treated for adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast. Follow-up also was done for these patients. RESULTS: Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast was diagnosed in 22 of 27,970 patients treated for breast cancer at KPNCR from 1960 through 2000. All 22 patients were female and were available for follow-up. Mean age of patients at diagnosis was 61 years (range, 37 to 94 years). In 17 (77%) of the women, a lump in the breast led to initial suspicion of a tumor; in 4 (23%) of the 22 patients, mammography led to suspicion of a tumor. Median tumor size was 20 mm. Pain was a prominent symptom. Surgical management evolved from radical and modified radical mastectomy to simple mastectomy or lumpectomy during the study period, during which time 1 patient died of previous ordinary ductal carcinoma of the contralateral breast, and 7 died of unrelated disease. At follow-up, 12 of the 13 remaining patients were free of disease; 1 patient died of the disease; and 1 patient remained alive despite late occurrence of lymph node and pulmonary metastases. CONCLUSIONS: Whether breast-preserving surgery with radiotherapy is as effective as mastectomy for treating adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast has not been determined.     

Skin-sparing mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction: incidence of recurrence in patients with invasive breast cancer

The aim of this study was to investigate whether skin-sparing mastectomy (SSM), which is gaining increasing importance and gives well-accepted cosmetic results, provides adequate treatment of the patients' oncologic disease. From 1995 to 2003, 60 patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer were treated with SSM and complete axillary dissection. All patients underwent immediate breast reconstruction after primary surgery. Patients were treated either with a latissimus dorsi flap or with a transversus rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap. Depending on the intraoperative analysis of frozen sections, 14 patients were treated with preservation of the nipple-areola complex. During a median follow-up of 52 months (4-92 months), four local recurrences (6.6%) occurred. One patient was also found to have contralateral breast carcinoma. Three patients developed distant metastases, and two patients died of their disease a mean of 18 months after primary therapy. Factors associated with local recurrence were tumor size, poor tumor differentiation, and positive node involvement. SSM followed by immediate breast reconstruction is an alternative to modified radical mastectomy in a subset of patients with invasive breast cancer. The risk of local recurrence is low and is associated with such factors as tumor stage, poor tumor differentiation, and node-positive disease. This procedure does not increase the risk of distant metastases, which is comparable to that after other surgical approaches.