Abstract P3-02-06: Survival impact of early detection of recurrence after surgery in early breast cancer patients

Abstract

Abstract Background and Object: Annual mammography and physical examination as the follow-up tests after surgery were recommended to early breast cancer patients based on the two randomized clinical trials (GIVIO and Rosselli Del Turco) which were reported in 1990s. Whereas, radiological imaging and blood test (serum tumor marker) for early detection of recurrence are not recommended due to the lack of evidence from clinical trial. However, the imaging techniques (helical CT, bone scan, PET/CT. MRI et al) to detect minute lesions and therapeutic options for metastatic breast cancer have been remarkably advanced since then. In fact, routine radiological examinations after surgery were performed in several Japanese hospitals for aiming early detection of recurrence as the clinical practice. We here evaluate the possible benefit of early detection of recurrence by radiological and laboratory examinations during post-operative follow-up period. Methods: Clinical information of breast cancer patients who were diagnosed as recurrence after surgery during 2005–2006 was collected from 30 hospitals in Japan. Clinical and pathological characteristics such as molecular subtype of breast cancer, survival time from initial therapy or 1st recurrence, detection methods and symptomatic information when they diagnosed as metastasis were analyzed retrospectively. Results: As the routine examination of post-operative follow-up, serum tumor maker, chest x-ray/CT, abdominal US/CT and bone scan were done in 95%, 57%, 38%, 24% of 30 hospitals, respectively. Of the 698 patients individually evaluated in this analysis, 248 had loco-regional recurrences and 450 had distant metastases. The first distant metastatic site were 35% in bone, 30% in lung, 17% in liver and 11% in lymph node, respectively. All individual patients are divided into symptomatic (45.7%) or asymptomatic groups (54.3%) at the detection of metastases. Asymptomatic metastases were detected by serum tumor marker (26%), bone scan (18%), chest x-ray (17%), chest CT (17%), abdominal US (11%) and abdominal CT (5%), respectively. The median disease-free interval (DFI) was 3.0 years in both groups, but the median survival time after the diagnosis of recurrence to death were 3.7 years in asymptomatic patients and 3.0 years in symptomatic patients, respectively. In addition, asymptomatic group had significantly superior overall survival (from primary surgery to death) than symptomatic group with oligo-metastases such as limited organ disease (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our data may support the hypothesis that early detection of breast cancer recurrences has beneficial impact on survival. Randomized clinical trial would be warranted to prove this hypothesis, and we are currently planning this. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-02-06.