Aim of the study: To determine the characteristics of 51 cases of isolated local regional breast cancer recurrence.
Methods: Retrospective study from 1980 to 1992, survival calculated according to Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test.
Results: Twenty-five patients had had a conservative treatment of her primary tumour, 26 had been treated by modified radical mastectomy. Local regional recurrence rate was 9%: 44% of recurrences after lumpectomy and 43% of recurrences after mastectomy occurred within 2 years after the initial treatment. Site of local regional recurrence was chest wall only (16 cases), breast only (15 cases) or axillary or supraclavicular node with or without chest wall or breast involvement (20 cases). The actuarial 5-year survival rate after recurrence is 54%. It depends on the time to recurrence (40% if time to recurrence was less than 2 years, 68% if more than 2 years, p < 0.10), on initial node involvement (36% for N+, 71% for N-, p < 0.15) and on the site of recurrence (chest wall: 43%; breast: 48%; regional node: 12%, p < 0.10).
Conclusion: Like in the literature, severe recurrences are early recurrences, lymph node recurrences and recurrences following a primary tumour with involved axillary nodes.