Lu WL et al. – Detection of isolated locoregional or contralateral breast cancer recurrence in symptom-free pts positive affects survival compared with late symptomatic detection Methods
Study of the impact on survival of early vs late detection of breast cancer local recurrence
Inclusion criteria: studies of pts treated for primary breast cancer with no evidence of distant metastasis at primary diagnosis; studies of routine follow-up strategies focusing on early detection of curable recurrences
Analysis of the data for risk for death
Results
Retrieval of13 studies including 2,263 pts
Survival significantly better eith early vs late detection of breast cancer recurrences during follow-up
Survival better when mammography vs physical examination detected recurrence or in symptom-free vs symptomatic pts
If all breast cancer recurrences were detected earlier, 5–8 deaths (absolute reduction in mortality of 17%–28%) would be avoided by performing routine follow-up during a 10 yr-period for 1,000 breast cancer pts
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