very late relapse in breast cancer survivors: a report of 6 cases

background: breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among the women worldwide. the risk of local and distant recurrence is the highest during the first two years following the initial treatment. very late relapse (after 12 years) is uncommon in breast cancer survivors. methods: herein, we report the characteristics and outcomes of 6 such cases of breast cancer. results: the mean age of the patients was 40.1 years (range 30-57) and the mean disease free survival was 19.6 years. conclusion: late relapse is not so common in breast cancer but can occur in any stage. therefore, we suggest life-time follow up for every patient with breast cancer. please cite this article as: omidvari sh, hamedish, mohammadianpanah m, nasrolahi h, mosalaei a, taleia, ahmadloo n, ansari m. very late relapse in breast cancer survivors: a report of 6 cases. iran j cancer prev. 2013; 6(2):113-17 references 1. guarneri v, conte pf. the curability of breast cancer and the treatment of advanced disease. eur j nucl med mol imaging. 2004; 31 suppl 1:s149-61. epub 2004 apr 24. 2. banerjee m, george j, song ey, roy a, hryniuk w. tree-based model for breast cancer prognostication. j clin oncol. 2004 ;22(13):2567-75. 3. henderson ic, berry da, demetri gd, cirrincione ct, goldstein lj, martino s, et al. improved outcomes from adding sequential paclitaxel but not from escalating doxorubicin dose in an adjuvant chemotherapy regimen for patients with node-positive primary breast cancer. j clin oncol. 2003; 21(6):976-83. 4. yin w, di g, zhou l, lu j, liu g, wu j, et al. time-varying pattern of recurrence risk for chinese breast cancer patients. breast cancer res treat. 2009; 114(3):527-35. epub 2008 apr 19. 5. dal lago d, villa g, miguoli r, annoni g, vergani c. an unusual case of breast cancer relapse after 30 years of disease-free survival. age and ageing. 1998; 27(5):649-50. 6. sabatier r, jacquemier j, bertucci f, esterni b, finetti p, azario f, et al. peritumoural vascular invasion: a major determinant of triple-negative breast cancer outcome. eur j cancer. 2011; 47(10):1537-45. epub 2011 mar 8. 7. li ci, malone ke, daling jr. differences in breast cancer stage, treatment, and survival by race and ethnicity. arch intern med. 2003; 163(1):49-56. 8. rosen pp, saigo pe, braun dw, weathers e, kinne dw. prognosis in stage ii (t1n1m0) breast cancer. ann surg. 1981; 194(5):576-84. 9. boyd nf, campbell je, germanson t, thomson db, sutherland dj, meakin jw. body weight and prognosis in breast cancer. j natl cancer inst. 1981; 67(4):785-9. 10. brewster am, hortobagyi gn, broglio kr, kau sw, santa-maria ca, arun b, et al. residual risk of breast cancer recurrence 5 years after adjuvant therapy.   j natl cancer inst. 2008; 100(16):1179-83. epub 2008 aug 11. 11. chen ch, lo yf, tsai hp, shen sc, chao tc, chen mf, et al. low body mass index is an independent risk factor of locoregional recurrence in women with breast cancer undergoing breast conserving therapy. chang gung med j. 2009; 32(5):553-62. 12. fisher b, dignam j, tan-chiu e, anderson s, fisher er, wittliff jl, et al. prognosis and treatment of patients with breast tumors of one centimeter or less and negative axillary lymph nodes. j natl cancer inst. 2001; 93(2):112-20. 13. yin w, di g, zhou l, lu j, liu g, wu j, et al. time-varying pattern of recurrence risk for chinese breast cancer patients. breast cancer res treat. 2009; 114(3):527-35. epub 2008 apr 19. 14. kurtz jm, spitalier jm, amalric r. late breast recurrence after lumpectomy and irradiation. int j radiat oncol biol phys. 1983; 9(8):1191-4. 15. sutton m. late recurrence of carcinoma of breast. br med j. 1960; 2(5206):1132-4. 16. usmani s, khan ha, al saleh n, abu huda f, marafi f, amanguno hg, et al. selective approach to radionuclide-guided sentinel lymph node biopsy in high-risk ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast. nucl med commun. 2011; 32(11):1084-7. 17. iakovlev vv, arneson nc, wong v, wang c, leung s, iakovleva g, et al. genomic differences between pure ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast and that   associated with invasive disease: a calibrated acgh study.clin cancer res. 2008;14(14):4446-54. 18. soerjomataram i, louwman mw, ribot jg, roukema ja, coebergh jw. an overview of prognostic factors for long-term survivors of breast cancer. breast cancer res treat. 2008; 107(3):309-30. epub 2007 mar 22. 19. saloustros e, perraki m, apostolaki s, kallergi g, xyrafas a, kalbakis k, et al. cytokeratin-19 mrna-positive circulating tumor cells during follow-up of patients with operable breast cancer: prognostic relevance for late relapse. breast cancer res. 2011 jun 10; 13(3):r60. 20. carlson rw, allred dc, anderson bo, burstein hj, edge sb, farrar wb, et al.  metastatic breast cancer, version 1.2012: featured updates to the nccn guidelines. natl compr canc netw. 2012; 10(7):821-9.