Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1988 Aug;58(2):191–194. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1988.191

Prognosis in bilateral breast cancer. Effects of time interval between first and second primary tumours.

L Holmberg 1, H O Adami 1, A Ekbom 1, R Bergström 1, A Sandström 1, A Lindgren 1
PMCID: PMC2246768  PMID: 3166909

Abstract

Survival rates for 67 women with bilateral breast cancer were compared to those for 1282 women with unilateral disease in a follow-up of 1349 women participating in a population-based study. Relative survival at 8 years of follow-up was 69% for women with unilateral disease as compared to 53% for women with bilateral cancer. When possible confounding histopathological differences--data about which were prospectively collected--and age were adjusted for in a multivariate analysis, the relative hazard rate was significantly higher for women with bilateral versus unilateral breast cancer (P = 0.006). The impact of interval time between the two primaries was analysed and a roughly two-fold higher hazard rate was seen for synchronous cancers with regularly falling risk for increasing interval times. This trend was however not statistically significant. The results indicate that the two tumours contribute independently to the patient's excess risk of dying and thus occur as two seemingly biologically unrelated events with respect to the tumour-host relationship and metastatic behaviour.

Full text

PDF
191

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Adami H. O., Bergström R., Hansen J. Age at first primary as a determinant of the incidence of bilateral breast cancer. Cumulative and relative risks in a population-based case-control study. Cancer. 1985 Feb 1;55(3):643–647. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19850201)55:3<643::aid-cncr2820550328>3.0.co;2-l. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Adami H. O., Malker B., Holmberg L., Persson I., Stone B. The relation between survival and age at diagnosis in breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 1986 Aug 28;315(9):559–563. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198608283150906. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bailey M. J., Royce C., Sloane J. P., Ford H. T., Powles T. J., Gazet J. C. Bilateral carcinoma of the breast. Br J Surg. 1980 Jul;67(7):514–516. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800670720. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Berge T., Ostberg G. Bilateral carcinoma of the female breast. Acta Chir Scand. 1974;140(1):27–32. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Burns P. E., Dabbs K., May C., Lees A. W., Birkett L. R., Jenkins H. J., Hanson J. Bilateral breast cancer in northern Alberta: risk factors and survival patterns. Can Med Assoc J. 1984 Apr 1;130(7):881–886. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. EDERER F., AXTELL L. M., CUTLER S. J. The relative survival rate: a statistical methodology. Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 1961 Sep;6:101–121. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Finney G. G., Jr, Finney G. G., Montague A. C., Stonesifer G. L., Jr, Brown C. C. Bilateral breast cancer, clinical and pathological review. Ann Surg. 1972 May;175(5):635–646. doi: 10.1097/00000658-197205000-00003. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. HARRINGTON S. W. Fifteen-year to forty-year survival rates following radical mastectomy for cancer of the breast. Ann Surg. 1953 Jun;137(6):843–849. doi: 10.1097/00000658-195306000-00009. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hakulinen T., Abeywickrama K. H. A computer program package for relative survival analysis. Comput Programs Biomed. 1985;19(2-3):197–207. doi: 10.1016/0010-468x(85)90011-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lesser M. L., Rosen P. P., Kinne D. W. Multicentricity and bilaterality in invasive breast carcinoma. Surgery. 1982 Feb;91(2):234–240. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. McCredie J. A., Inch W. R., Alderson M. Consecutive primary carcinomas of the breast. Cancer. 1975 May;35(5):1472–1477. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197505)35:5<1472::aid-cncr2820350536>3.0.co;2-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mueller C. B., Ames F., Anderson G. D. Breast cancer in 3,558 women: age as a significant determinant in the rate of dying and causes of death. Surgery. 1978 Feb;83(2):123–132. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Mueller C. B., Ames F. Bilateral carcinoma of the breast: frequency and mortality. Can J Surg. 1978 Sep;21(5):459–465. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Nielsen M., Christensen L., Andersen J. Contralateral cancerous breast lesions in women with clinical invasive breast carcinoma. Cancer. 1986 Mar 1;57(5):897–903. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19860301)57:5<897::aid-cncr2820570502>3.0.co;2-t. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. ROBBINS G. F., BERG J. W. BILATERAL PRIMARY BREAST CANCER; A PROSPECTIVE CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY. Cancer. 1964 Dec;17:1501–1527. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(196412)17:12<1501::aid-cncr2820171202>3.0.co;2-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Rosselli Del Turco M., Ciatto S., Perigli G., Borrelli D., Carcangiu M. L., Santucci M. Bilateral cancer of the breast. Tumori. 1982 Apr 30;68(2):155–160. doi: 10.1177/030089168206800210. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Schell S. R., Montague E. D., Spanos W. J., Jr, Tapley N. D., Fletcher G. H., Oswald M. J. Bilateral breast cancer in patients with initial stage I and II disease. Cancer. 1982 Sep 15;50(6):1191–1194. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19820915)50:6<1191::aid-cncr2820500628>3.0.co;2-f. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Slack N. H., Bross I. D., Nemoto T., Fisher B. Experiences with bilateral primary carcinoma of the breast. Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1973 Mar;136(3):433–440. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES