31 Jan Rate of Breast Biopsy After Cancer Treatment Relatively Low, and Most Are Benign
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Kuerer
Henry M. Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS
Executive Director, Breast Programs
MD Anderson Cancer Network
Endowed Distinguished Professor in Cancer Research
Division of Surgery
MedicalResearch.com: Why did you undertake this study?
Response: Many of our patients feel very overwhelmed with their new cancer diagnosis and have concern over the future need for biopsies. Many think that complete removal of the breast is a good way to prevent future cancer-related biopsies. We did not have any good comprehensive data on the incidence of needing biopsies during follow-up for breast cancer.
As a surgeon this information is something that I can use daily when discussing breast cancer treatment options regarding future expectations following breast cancer treatment.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the key findings of this study?
Response: There are several things we learned in this study: overall, with current treatments the long-term rates of local recurrence are markedly low and below 5% for most patients. In this study, 60% of patients received breast conserving surgery and 40% had initial mastectomy.
Overall for insured women ≤ 64 years old, 23% require a breast biopsy after breast cancer treatment at 10 years; and about 15% of patients over 66 years old need these biopsies. The need for further biopsies during follow-up was higher among patients receiving brachytherapy versus standard whole breast radiotherapy, chemotherapy, in younger patients, and in those who did not take endocrine therapy.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the key take-home messages for clinicians and patients?
Response: An important take home message is that the rate of biopsy for patients is relatively low and the overwhelming majority of the biopsy results will be benign and not require further treatment. About 20 to 30% of patients received additional cancer treatments after their breast biopsy in the study.
MedicalResearch.com: Can you tell us any information about how often breast biopsies had to occur if the patient received an initial mastectomy?
Response: For patients who initially had mastectomy, it did not eliminate the need for biopsy on the remaining healthy breast during surveillance which occurred in 10 to 17% at 10 years of follow-up. Some patients may think these rates are high and use it for a justification to remove the otherwise healthy breast at their initial treatments for breast cancer. We would generally caution against this since we would expect fewer than 6% of these patients to experience a second breast cancer in the opposite breast during the next 10 years unless they had a known highly penetrant genetic mutation associated with breast cancer or in the absence of a mutation a very strong family history of breast and/or ovarian carcinoma.
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Last Updated on January 31, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD