1 Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara; 2 Department of Medical Oncology, Hacettepe University, Ankara; 3 Department of Radiation Oncology, Ankara Oncology Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
*E-mail: kaltunda@hacettepe.edu.tr
We read with interest the article concerning late breast recurrences in patients with breast conservative treatment compared with those who underwent mastectomy for early breast cancer in the November 2003 issue of Annals of Oncology [1]. In spite of the limited number of patients, the main finding in patients with a mean follow-up of 22 years was that the late local recurrence rate was higher among the breast-conserving surgery patients than among mastectomized patients. Although there was no difference between the two treatment groups in terms of age, macroscopic tumor size, histological grade and the number of histologically proven negative axillary nodes, the authors did not mention receptor status, which is one of the most important prognostic and predictive factor for breast cancer patients. Negative estrogen receptor status has been found to be associated with an increased risk of local relapse in patients undergoing breast conservative treatment [2]. Therefore, receptor status must also be considered in the analysis of increased late relapse risk in these patients.
REFERENCES
1. Arriagada R, Lé MG, Ginebretiére JM et al. Late local recurrences in a randomised trial comparing conservative treatment with total mastectomy in early breast cancer patients. Ann Oncol 2003; 14: 16171622.
2. Pendlebury SC, Ivanov O, Renwick S, Stevens GN. Long-term review of a breast conservation series and patterns of care over 18 years. ANZ J Surg 2003; 73: 55775583.