Clinical outcome of breast cancer occurring after treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma: Case-control analysis

Background: To evaluate diagnosis, management and outcome of breast cancer (BC) occurring after irradiation for Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). Methods: 39 cases of BC in 28 HL survivors were retrospectively reviewed. 21 patients were included in a case-control analysis. Results: The median age at diagnosis of HL and BC was 25.3 and 45.3 years, respectively. The median interval to develop BC was 16.1 years. Eleven women (39.2%) had bilateral disease. Mode of detection of the index breast cancers was by mammographic screening in 17 patients (60.7%), palpable lump in 8 patients (28.6%), clinical examination in two patients (7.1%), and unknown in one patient (3.6%). Case-control analysis showed that histological features and prognosis of BC after HL were similar to those of primary BC, however, for BC after HL, mastectomy was the predominant surgery (P = .001) and adjuvant radiotherapy and anthracycline-based chemotherapy were less frequently used as compared to primary BC (P < .001 and .003, respectively). Conclusion: The previous history of HL does not appear to be a poor prognostic factor for BC occurring thereafter. © 2009 El-Din et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.