Abstract
From November 1979 to December 1996, a series of 2413 female patients with breast cancer were treated with radical mastectomy at the institution and 490 (20.3%) patients of them experienced recurrence, including 107 patients with initial local recurrence in the chest wall on the affected side. Excepting four patients died of other disease, 103 patients with local recurrence were subjected to a study of prognostic factors and disease free interval (DFI). Mean DFI after the operation was 24 months. The 3-and 5-year survival rates after local recurrence were 57.9% and 39.4%, and 5-and 10-year survival rates after mastectomy were 59.8% and 35.4%, respectively. Factors significantly related with prognosis were DFI (p=0.0002), estrogen receptor (p=0.0004), and other organs metastasis (p=0.0313). In 86 patients with other organs metastasis, the interval after local recurrence significantly influenced the survival (p<0.0005). Based on histological examination of resected local foci, local recurrences were divided into three classes, such as intramuscular (IM), subcutaneous (SC), and intracutaneous (IC) types. The prognosis of the patients with IM type was relatively favorable, but that of those with IC type was poor. The IC type appeared to be a general disease. We consider that the characteristics of local recurrence of breast cancer should be classified by using the above-mentioned three prognostic factors and histological factors such as mode of local recurrence, metastasized organs, and the time of metastasis.
