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Risk Assessment Plays Key Role in Long-Term Treatment of Breast Cancer HOUSTON, Tex -- August 13, 2008 -- Breast cancer patients and their physicians may make more informed, long-term treatment decisions using risk assessment strategies to help determine probability of recurrence, reported a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study is online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The 2,838 women studied were diagnosed with stage I through III breast cancers and had been treated with adjuvant systemic therapy (AST), such as chemotherapy and/or tamoxifen between 1985 and 2001, and were in the M. D. Anderson Tumor Registry. The patients in the study were 5 years from the start of their AST and were cancer-free. The researchers calculated the residual or remaining risk of recurrence from the benchmark of 5 years from the start of AST and determined the factors that contributed to a higher residual risk of recurrence. Data analysis revealed that 89% of the study populations did not experience a recurrence at 5 years, and 80% did not experience a recurrence at 10 years. Dr. Brewster commented that, while reassuring for most of the 5-year survivors, the percentage of the population who had a recurrence is significant to oncologists. During follow-up, 216 of the women experienced a recurrence. The 5-year residual risks of recurrence for patients with stage I, II, and III cancers were 7%, 11%, and 13% respectively. Patients with stage II or III versus stage I disease and patients with grade 1 versus grade 3 tumours had a higher risk of late recurrence. Patients who had oestrogen receptor-positive tumours who received adjuvant endocrine therapy also had a higher risk of recurrence than those with hormone receptor-negative tumours but the difference was not found to meet statistical significance. “Understandably, one of the most common questions posed by breast cancer survivors is: What are the chances of it coming back?” said the study’s lead author, Abenaa Brewster, MD, M. D. Anderson’s Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention, Houston, Texas. “Now we can tell some women within a certain percentage their future risk of recurrence, and clinicians may be able to make more informed decisions regarding prescription of extended adjuvant endocrine therapy.” SOURCE: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version