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Breast-Preserving Therapy Effective for Metaplastic Breast Carcinoma: Presented at IBCC

By Alison Palkhivala

BANFF, AB -- August 6, 2003 -- Metaplastic carcinoma of the breast can be treated effectively with breast-preserving therapy, according to a 15-year retrospective analysis presented at the Second Annual Future of Breast Cancer : An International Breast Cancer Congress, held here July 31^st to August 3^rd.

Kenneth Lodin, MD, and colleagues from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, United States, treated 19 patients with metaplastic carcinoma of the breast with breast-preserving therapy between 1987 and 2002.

Patients ranged in age from 26 to 76 years, with a mean age of 52. Mean tumor size was 3.0 cm, and each patient received a radiation dose that ranged between 5000 and 6000 cGy, with a mean dose of 5215 cGy. Eighteen patients underwent pathological examination of their lymph nodes; 17% of these patients had positive nodes; 22% were estrogen-receptor positive; and all patients received tamoxifen. Eleven patients received adjuvant chemotherapy, and adriamycin was used in 10 of these patients.

After a follow-up period that ranged from 6 to 176 months (mean 37 months), 2 of the 19 patients developed local recurrences. One of these recurrences occurred at 19 months and the other occurred at 21 months, both were isolated recurrences that were successfully salvaged with mastectomy. Four of the 19 patients developed distant recurrences, all between months 19 and 35, three of which were node negative. The tumor size of these recurrences averaged 2.1 cm.

The authors of this analysis concluded, "breast-preserving therapy appears to be a reasonable option for patients with metaplastic carcinoma." They added that further follow-up and additional patients are needed to validate these preliminary results.


[Study title: Breast Conservation with Metaplastic Carcinoma: the Kaiser Experience. Poster 8]

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