Abstract
Treatment of patients with recurrent breast cancer involving sternal chest wall is one of the most difficult treatment of recurrent breast cancer. We report a case of chest wall resection for solitary recurrent breast cancer involving sternum. A 40-year-old woman who had modified radical mastectomy for right breast cancer (TlaNOMO-St I) on June 23, 1993, was admitted to the hospital because of a mass in the anterior chest wall on Feb 23, 1995. Since fine needle aspiration cytology of this tumor was positive, she underwent chest wall resection for recurrent breast cancer involving sternal chest wall on March 15, 1995. Microscopic examination revealed the tumor invaded the sternum, ribs, parietal pleura and right brachiocephaic vein. She received adjuvant radiotherapy and chemoendocrine therapy, nevertheless, she died of liver metastasis eight month later after operation. Although a consensus of opinion regarding the treatment of local relapse does not exist, aggressive rather than palliative therapeutic approaches have been supported by most authors as an attempt to achieve local control and to improve survival. We thought that her poor prognosis was caused by a short disease free interval and tumoral invasion to the wall of right brachiocephalic vein.
