Quantifying the Mitigating Effects of Whole-Breast Radiotherapy and Systemic Treatments on Regional Recurrence Incidence Among Breast Cancer Patients

Julia E.C. van Steenhoven*, Anne Kuijer, Marissa C. van Maaren, Marleen M. Roos, Sjoerd G. Elias, Paul J. van Diest, Sabine Siesling, Marjolein L. Smidt, Liesbeth J. Boersma, Thijs van Dalen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Background: Despite the potential for residual lymph node metastases after a negative or positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), breast cancer patients rarely experience regional recurrences (RRs). This study aimed to quantify the effects of nonsurgical treatments on RR incidence among SLNB-negative (SLNB N0) breast cancer patients. Methods: All primary SLNB N0-staged breast cancer patients with a diagnosis between 2005 and 2008 and 5-year follow-up data on recurrences were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. The cumulative incidence function (CIF) for RR was calculated as the first event at 5 years, taking into account any other first-event (local or distant recurrence, contralateral breast cancer, or death) as competing risk. Cox regression analysis was used to model the cause-specific hazard of RR developing as the first event to quantify the effect of adjuvant systemic therapy and whole-breast radiotherapy (RT) on RR incidence at 5 years. Results: The study included 13,512 patients. Of these patients, 162 experienced an RR. The CIF of RR at 5 years was 1.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–1.5%), whereas the CIFs for death and other events were 4.4% and 9.5%, respectively. Cox regression analysis showed hazard ratios (HRs) of 0.46 (95% CI 0.33–0.64), 0.31 (95% CI 0.18–0.55), and 0.40 (95% CI 0.24–0.67) respectively for patients treated by RT as a routine part of breast-conserving therapy (BCT), chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. Conclusion: RT as routine part of BCT, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy independently exerted a mitigating effect on the risk for the development of RR. The three methods at least halved the risk.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3402-3411
Number of pages10
JournalAnnals of surgical oncology
Volume27
Issue number9
Early online date20 Mar 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2020

Keywords

  • UT-Hybrid-D

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