Clinico-pathological study and treatment results of 1009 operable breast cancer cases: Experience of NCI Cairo University, Egypt

Objective: This retrospective study was designed to evaluate clinico-pathological data including stage, results of treatment, and prognostic factors which affect the overall survival & disease free survival. Methods: This was a retrospective study carried out at the Radiotherapy Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt on 1009 patients treated for primary breast cancer between 1999-2003. Results: The median follow-up was 68 months. Loco regional relapse occurred in 23 patients (2.3%) and distant relapse occurred in 203 patients (20.1%). Both loco regional and distant relapse were reported in 32 patients (3.2%). The disease free survival (DFS) at 3 and 5 years were 87% and 78% respectively, while OAS at 3 and 5 years were 96.4% and 91.4% respectively. Multivariate analysis of different prognostic factors showed that the independent bad prognostic factors in the study for disease relapse were positive lymph nodes (LNs, more than 10), tumor size T3, T4 with significance of 0.0001 for each, and pathologic grade with significance of 0.003. Conclusion: The most important independent bad prognostic factors for relapse are positive LNs more than 10, tumor size T3, T4 and pathologic grade. The timing of radiotherapy affects the disease free survival significantly also it is recommended to analyze the group of patients with LNs negative using well designed randomized trials. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.