Background: Risk factors for ipsilateral breast cancer tumor recurrence (IBTR) are well established and include grading, nodal status, and receptor status. Little is known about the influence of the local distance between the primary tumor and recurrences on changes in tumor characteristics and prognosis.
Methods: In a retrospective setting, we analyzed primary breast cancers and their recurrences. Localizations of primary and recurrent breast cancer were recorded to calculate the relative distance in pixels. Analysis was performed regarding tumor characteristics, relative distance between both, and their impact on breast cancer prognosis.
Results: In a cohort of 142 patients with ipsilateral recurrence, no statistically significant difference could be shown in the change in tumor characteristics depending on distance. Progesterone receptor (PR) and estrogene receptor (ER) status changed in 22.7% and 14.9% of cases, respectively. human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ERBB2, HER2) status changed in 18.3% of cases. Survival was in accordance with the literature, with luminal-A-like tumors as best and triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) as worst prognosis. With a threshold of 162 pixels, the survival was significantly better in the group with shorter distance.
Conclusion: Change in tumor characteristics from primary breast cancer to recurrence occurs more often in PR than ER. In contrast to other work, in this dataset, recurrences with a larger distance to the primary tumor had a worse prognosis in univariate analysis. A Cox model might indicate the possibility that this influence is independent of other risk factors.
Keywords: breast cancer; ipsilateral recurrence; prognosis; tumor characteristics.