Treatment results of breast cancer patients with locoregional recurrence after mastectomy

PURPOSE To analyze the results of locoregional and systemic therapy in the breast cancer patients with locoregional recurrence (LRR) after mastectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy-one patients who received radiotherapy for isolated LRR after mastectomy between January 1999 and December 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. Among the 71 patients, 59 (83.1%) underwent wide excision and radiotherapy and 12 (16.9%) received radiotherapy alone. Adjuvant hormonal therapy was given to 45 patients (63.4%). Oncologic outcomes including locoregional recurrence-free survival, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) and prognostic factors were analyzed. RESULTS Median follow-up time was 49.2 months. Of the 71 patients, 5 (7%) experienced second isolated LRR, and 40 (56%) underwent distant metastasis (DM). The median DFS was 35.6 months, and the 3- and 5-year DFS were 49.1% and 28.6%, respectively. The median OS was 86.7 months, and the 5-year OS was 62.3%. Patients who received hormone therapy together showed better 5-year DFS and OS than the patients treated with locoregional therapy only (31.6% vs. 22.1%, p = 0.036; 66.5% vs. 55.2%, p = 0.022). In multivariate analysis, higher N stage at recurrence was a significant prognostic factor for DFS and OS. Disease free interval (≤30 months vs. >30 months) from mastectomy to LRR was also significant for OS. The patients who received hormone therapy showed superior DFS and showed trend to better OS. CONCLUSION DM was a major pattern of failure after the treatment of LRR after mastectomy. The role of systemic treatment for LRR after mastectomy should be investigated at prospective trials.