Local recurrences after breast conserving surgery and radiotherapy: correlation of histopathological risk factors with age

Abstract

From 1984–1990, 475 patients with breast cancer less than 3 cm, pN 0pN 1, were treated with breast conservation surgery followed by definitive irradiation. 21 local failures occured (4.4%) and these recurrences were not related to nodal status. Young patients (age ≤ 35 years) had a higher risk of local failure ( 9 32 = 28.1 %) than older patients ( 12 443 = 2.7 %). To understand these results we studied the distribution of known risk factors for ipsilateral breast recurrences in 1062 specimens from total mastectomies performed by us and by other surgeons in the same time period on comparable patients. Young age (≤ 35 years) was significantly associated with multicentricity (36% vs 16%; p = 0.002), multifocality (35% vs 19%; p = 0.001) and vascular invasion (27% vs 11%; p = 0.0004). These findings may explain the higher recurrence rate in younger patients.