Breast Cancer Risk May Strike Back Years After Treatment

Even after a successful treatment for breast cancer, a woman continues to have a substantial risk of disease recurrence, a new study has found, giving an abrupt setback to a common public belief about cancer that once a person beats the disease, they are cured forever.

The US study published in the August 12 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute find that women who complete five years of what doctors call systemic therapy to treat their early-stage breast cancer have a significant higher risk for relapsing than that of a woman never diagnosed with the disease.

The study found that the risk of breast cancer recurrence remains present even 15 years after a woman is initially diagnosed with the disease.

To reach their findings, Abenaa Brewster, M.D., of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues examined the recurrence rate in 2,838 patients with stage I to III breast cancers who were treated at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for early stage breast cancer between the years of 1985 and 2001.

Al the study participants were cancer-free 5 years after initial cancer treatment which consisted of surgery, radiation, as well as chemotherapy, the researchers said.

About 10 years after the diagnosis, the researchers found that the breast cancer returned after five years in just 7 percent of women who were treated for stage I breast cancer. The condition returned in 11 percent of women treated for stage II disease, while 13 percent of women treated for stage III disease saw a recurrence after five years.

"Women who had estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive cancer were more likely to have late recurrences than those with ER-negative," Dr. Brewster said.

"The risk of relapse was still small, but certainly not insignificant," Dr. Brewster added. "I think these numbers are somewhat reassuring, but they also highlight the need for new [therapeutic] options for women who have completed five years of treatment."

Among breast cancer patients who were still free of cancer five years after beginning drug treatment, 89% remained cancer-free five years after the treatment or 10 years after the diagnosis and 80% remained cancer-free 10 years after ending treatment or 15 years after the diagnosis.

The study concludes that women with early stage breast cancer who are disease free at five years after adjuvant systemic therapy have a substantially higher residual risk of recurrence.

Breast cancer is the most common tumor in women. It can affect anyone irrespective of age, race or lifestyle. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, first being the lung cancer.

Breast cancer affects women of all ages equally although the risk increases with aging. Heart disease is dangerous mostly after the age of 65 but breast cancer can affect a woman at an age as early as 20. Thus, women need to be vigilant all their lives in order to prevent it from getting lethal.

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States every year and almost 41,000 die because of it.