• V Vichapat, H Garmo, L Holmberg, I S Fentiman, A Tutt, C Gillett, and M Lüchtenborg.
• King's College London, School of Medicine, Division of Cancer Studies, Cancer Epidemiology Group, Research Oncology, 3rd Floor, Bermondsey Wing London, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK. voralak.vichapat@kcl.ac.uk
• Br. J. Cancer. 2012 Jul 10;107(2):221-3.

BackgroundThe understanding of metastatic patterns after metachronous contralateral breast cancer (CBC) may help determine the biological nature of CBC.MethodsA cohort of 8478 women with breast cancer treated at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust between 1975 and 2006 were studied. Organ-specific 5-year cumulative incidence and incidence rate ratios were assessed for women diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer (UBC), CBC within 5 years and CBC more than 5 years of the initial diagnosis.ResultsWomen diagnosed with CBC within 5 years had a higher incidence of metastases in all organs compared with UBC. Women with a short interval time to CBC developed metastasis more rapidly and were more likely to develop visceral and distant cutaneous metastases compared with bone metastasis.ConclusionThese findings explain poor prognosis of women with early occurring CBC and suggest that some of these CBCs are indicators of aggressive and/or systemic disease.

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