Study: Recurrence Risk Higher for Young Women After Lumpectomies

Young women who have lumpectomies for breast cancer are at higher risk of recurrence many years later than those who have mastectomies or older women who have lumpectomies, according to a report in Annals of Oncology.

French researchers tracked 179 patients recruited to a trial in the 1970s in what has been the longest follow-up of any trial comparing lumpectomies with mastectomies. Eighty eight of the women had lumpectomies and the 91 had mastectomies.

"The risk of local recurrence was actually five-fold less in the breast conservation patients during the first five years than in the mastectomy group," reported Dr. Rodrigo Arriagada. "However, after five years it was 12-fold greater."

He said the mean age of patients in the lumpectomy group who had a recurrence of breast cancer between five and 10 years after surgery was 46. And more than 10 years after surgery, the mean age at recurrence was 44.

The only patient who had a breast cancer recurrence five years or more after having a mastectomy aged 59, Arriagada added..

"Our results confirm that a young age at diagnosis is a strong prognostic factor for local recurrence in breast conservation patients and not in patients treated by mastectomy," Arrigada said.

"Younger patients should be informed of the higher risk of local recurrence and the need for indefinite follow up if they choose conservation treatment," he added.

Other Sources: European Society f9or Medical Oncology