We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Patterns of Relapse and Modalities of Treatment of Breast Cancer: The ‘IRIS’ Project, a Multicenter Observational Study.
- Authors
Cazzaniga, M.; Pronzato, P.; Di Priolo, S. L. Leto; De Matteis, A.; Di Costanzo, F.; Passalacqua, R.; Rosso, R.; Torri, V.
- Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the patterns of breast cancer relapse and the factors influencing therapeutic choices in an unselected postmenopausal population. Methods: Five hundred and thirty-nine patients were enrolled between October 1999 and March 2001. The majority (92.6%) underwent surgery for the primary tumor: there was no difference between general and university hospitals in terms of the type of mastectomy, but a slight difference was found between Southern and Northern Centers. Results: At the time of first relapse, 61.6% of the patients had a good Karnofsky performance status. The median disease-free interval (DFI) was 34 months. More than half of the patients (62.3%) presented a single metastasis. Metastatic disease was treated with chemotherapy in 64.8% of cases (alone in 44.1%, and in combination with hormone therapy in 20.1%), hormone therapy alone was given in 30.8% of cases. The main reasons for choosing chemotherapy were age (31%), standard guidelines (19.4%) and the site of metastatic disease (14.3%), and those for selecting hormone therapy were age (26.6%), site of relapse (19.3%), standard guidelines (19.2%), biological tumor characteristics (14.3%) and the DFI (11.1%). Taxane-containing treatments accounted for 46.1% of the chemotherapies, whereas letrozole was the preferred hormone (41.2%). Conclusion: The first relapse of breast cancer is often single, at bone or viscera, and mainly diagnosed by instrumental screening examinations. The preferred chemo- and hormone therapies are taxane-containing regimens and letrozole, respectively. Copyright © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel
- Subjects
CANCER relapse; BREAST cancer; MASTECTOMY; METASTASIS; DRUG therapy; HORMONE therapy
- Publication
Oncology, 2004, Vol 66, Issue 4, p260
- ISSN
0030-2414
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1159/000078325