The Use of Pathologic Features in Selecting the Extent of Surgical Resection Necessary for Breast Cancer Patients Treated by Primary Radiation Therapy

The extent of the surgical resection necessary for breast cancer patients treated by primary radiation therapy is unknown. A simple gross excision of the tumor provides the best cosmetic result, but a wide local resection may be important to prevent local recurrence in some patients. In order to identify patients who are not adequately treated by gross excision of the tumor and radiation therapy, we performed a retrospective clinical-pathologic review of 221 treated women with infiltrating duct carcinoma. There were 53 cases in which the excision specimen showed a constellation of three pathologic features: prominent intraductal carcinoma in the tumor, intraductal carcinoma in the grossly-normal adjacent tissue, and poorly-differentiated nuclei. These cases had a 37% risk of a local recurrence at 6 years compared to eight per cent for all other cases (p less than 0.0001). In cases with all three features, the use of a supplemental dose of radiation to the primary site did not significantly reduce the risk of a local recurrence. Local recurrence at 6 years was 34% in cases with all three features, who received supplemental local radiation, compared to 49% in cases not receiving a supplemental dose (p = 0.28). Survival was also worse for patients with all three features compared to other cases (69% vs. 90% at 6 years, p = 0.002). These results indicate that patients with all three pathologic features have a high risk of local recurrence following gross excision of the tumor and radiation therapy. If primary radiation therapy is selected for these patients, they should first undergo a re-excision of the tumor site in order to be certain that areas of extensive intraductal carcinoma have been adequately resected. Patients whose tumors do not show all three features are adequately treated by gross excision of the tumor prior to radiation therapy.