Objective: To explore the clinical characteristics and prognosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and early stage ductal breast cancer with invasive depth ≤ 1 cm.
Methods: Follow-up analyses were performed for the clinical data of 57 patients with DCIS, 46 with pT(1mic) and 74 with pT(1a-b) breast cancer treated or consulted at our hospital. Single factor analysis was used to examine their prognostic factors.
Results: Among them, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER-2) positive rate and visual tumor size (2.0(0.1-7.0) vs 2.0(0.5-10.0) vs 2.0(0.3-10.0) cm)had no statistical differences between 3 groups (all P > 0.05). After median follow-up periods of 63, 38, 59 months, 12 patients suffered recurrence and metastasis and the rate of each group had no statistical differences. For pT(1a-b) patients with positive hormone receptor, endocrine therapy markedly reduced the risk of recurrence and metastasis (P = 0.024) . pT(1mic), pT(1a-b) patients on chemotherapy had higher or comparable recurrence rate versus those without. And DCIS patients on chemotherapy had a much higher recurrence rate (P = 0.016) . In pT(1a-b) group, HER-2 positive patients had higher recurrence and metastasis rates. Yet there was a decreasing tendency after Herceptin treatment.
Conclusions: Chemotherapy without proper indications may not improve the prognosis of DCIS, pT(1mic) and pT(1a-b) patients. Endocrine therapy is the crucial prognostic factor of patients with positive hormone receptor. Use of Herceptin for HER-2-positive patients is probably significant.