Breast cancer research and treatment
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · Mar 2005
Distinct breast cancer incidence and prognostic patterns in the NCI's SEER program: suggesting a possible link between etiology and outcome.
Breast cancer is a heterogeneous and chronic disease with relapses and death occurring 25 years or more after primary diagnosis. Standard tumor characteristics are used to predict initial relapse or death, but their ability to estimate long-term patterns of failure may be limited. ⋯ Distinct incidence and prognostic patterns among high-risk and low-risk breast cancers suggest a possible link between breast cancer etiology and outcome. These epidemiologic results appear to complement emerging molecular genetic techniques, showing distinct genotypes for high-risk and low-risk breast cancer phenotypes.