Estrogen Positive Breast Cancer Recurrence Rates

Types Of Recurrent Cancer

There are three types of recurrent breast cancer:

Local recurrence: When cancer returns to the same part of the breast as the initial diagnosis, the disease is classified as a local recurrence.

Regional recurrence: This type is diagnosed when the breast cancer is found in nearby lymph nodes and/or the chest wall.

Distant recurrence: Also called metastatic breast cancer, this occurs when cancer cells travel away from the original tumor in the breast to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system or bloodstream. Common metastatic areas include the bones, liver and lungs. Even when a metastatic breast tumor spreads to a different part of the body, it contains the same cancerous cells that developed in the breast.

What Factors Contribute To The Risk Of Breast Cancer Recurrence

Whilst it is never completely certain that breast cancer has been cured, there are many treatments available that reduce the risk of recurrence. There are a number of risk factors that can contribute to a breast cancer recurrence.

Your age at first diagnosis Younger women, particularly those who had their first diagnosis under the age of 35, have a greater risk of recurrence. This is because those diagnosed at a young age are more likely to have aggressive features in their breast cancer. Additionally women diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause have a greater risk of recurrence.

Tumour size Women who have a larger breast tumour have a greater risk of recurrence.

Lifestyle factors Lifestyle factors can influence the risk of recurrence. Excess weight is associated with a higher risk of postmenopausal breast cancer and is also associated with a higher risk of breast cancer recurrence and death. Smoking has also been shown to increase the risk of recurrence. Women who exercise regularly appear to have a lower rate of breast cancer recurrence.

Lymph node involvement If cancer is found in lymph nodes at the time of the original breast cancer diagnosis, there is an increased risk of breast cancer recurrence. This is the strongest prognostic factor, and the more nodes involved, the higher the risk of recurrence.

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What Are Estrogen And Progesterone Receptors

Estrogen and progesterone are two hormones that can help breast cancer grow. These hormones bind to estrogen and progesterone receptors.

Following a breast biopsy, a pathologist will perform a test called an immunohistochemical staining assay on the tissue sample. The test can detect the presence of estrogen and progesterone receptors.

Hormone receptor status provides a lot of information on how the cancer is likely to behave. Its also a key factor in determining the best possible treatment.

HR-positive breast cancer typically responds well to hormone therapy. These therapies block the production of the hormones or interfere with their effects on breast cancer cells. On the other hand, HR-negative breast cancers dont respond to hormone therapy, so other treatment options will be more effective.

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Study Selection And Data Synthesis

Two systematic searches of published literature were conducted on July 24, 2019 to identify eligible randomized controlled trials and observational or real-world evidence studies reporting any recurrence outcomes for adult patients with HR+/HER2- early BC receiving adjuvant ETs. Ovid MEDLINE®, MEDLINE® In-Process, Embase, and Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews were searched, restricting to articles published in the prior 15 years to reflect contemporary clinical practice, including the widespread approval for the most common AIs . The literature searches were conducted by an information specialist and peer-reviewed using the Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies Guideline . Recent scientific congresses and relevant systematic reviews or meta-analysis articles were also reviewed. Citation titles and abstracts identified in the literature searches were screened for relevance then further evaluated in full-text form based on the same selection criteria. Literature searches, study selection, data extraction, and quality assessments were performed by duplicate independent reviewers , according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis statement. The review protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews . The full search strategy, eligibility criteria, and list of excluded articles are available in the Supplementary.

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Treatments And Recurrence: Early And Late

Treatments also play a role in both early and late recurrences. While chemotherapy can significantly reduce the risk of recurrence in the first five years, it has much less influence on the risk of late recurrence.

Hormonal therapy reduces the risk of recurrence in the first five years , but can also reduce the risk of late recurrences. It is this reduction in risk that has led to recommendations to extend hormonal therapy for people at high risk beyond five years.

Extending hormonal therapy from five years to 10 years has been shown to reduce the risk of late recurrence, but the risk of recurrence needs to be weighed against the side effects of continued therapy.

A 2019 study found that people with luminal A tumors continued to have significant benefit from tamoxifen therapy for 15 years post-diagnosis.

The addition of bisphosphonates to an aromatase inhibitor in post-menopausal women with early-stage breast cancer may improve survival, but it’s too early to determine the effect on late recurrences. Bisphosphonates reduce the risk of bone metastases, but the most common sites of distant late recurrence are the brain, liver, and lungs.

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Outcomes According To Hr Status

When HR was positive, the HER2 group and HER2+ + T group had significantly lower LRR , DM and higher DFS at 5 years than that in the HER2+ T group. There were no significant differences in LRR , DM or DFS at 5 years between the HER2 group and HER2+ + T group.

Figure 3 KaplanMeier plots of locoregional recurrence , distant metastasis , disease-free survival , and overall survival of HR-positive patients and HR-negative patients grouped according to HER2 status and trastuzumab treatment. HR, hormonal receptor-negative HR+, hormonal receptor-positive HER2, HER2-negative HER2+ + T, HER2-positive with trastuzumab HER2+ T, HER2-positive without trastuzumab.

When HR was negative, there were no significant differences in LRR, DM, DFS or OS among HER, HER2+ + T, or HER2+ T groups .

Lisa Fought Breast Cancer For 8 Years Heres Her Story

In contrast to the common belief that surviving for five years after cancer treatment is equivalent to a cure, with hormone-sensitive breast tumors there is a steady rate of recurrence risk for at least 20 years after the original diagnosis, even with very small node-negative tumors.

Overall, the chance that an estrogen receptor-positive tumor will recur between five years and 20 years after diagnosis ranges from 10% to over 41%, and people with these tumors remain at risk for the remainder of their lives.

An awareness of the risk of late recurrence is important for a number of reasons. People are often shocked to learn that their breast cancer has come back after say, 15 years, and loved ones who don’t understand this risk are often less likely to be supportive as you cope with the fear of recurrence.

While chemotherapy has little effect on the risk of late recurrence hormonal therapy does, and estimating this risk may help determine who should receive extended hormonal therapy . Finally, late recurrences can differ from early relapse with regard to sites of metastases and survival.

Factors such as initial tumor size, number of nodes involved, and receptor status play into the risk of late recurrence, but tumor biology appears to have the greatest effect, and research is actively looking for ways to look at gene expression and copy number to predict risk.

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Early Recurrence Vs Late Recurrence

A recurrence of breast cancer at any time can be devastating. While 6% to 10% of breast tumors are diagnosed when the disease is already metastatic , 90% to 94% of metastatic breast cancers represent a distant recurrence of previous early-stage breast cancer .

Since distant metastases are responsible for around 90% of breast cancer deaths, finding ways to reduce the risk of recurrence is critical in improving the survival rate from the disease. Overall, it’s estimated that around 30% of breast cancers will recur at distant sites.

Four Steps To Avoid A Recurrence

Theres nothing you can do to guarantee that your cancer wont come back, but you can make some changes to help you feel your best after cancer treatment and keep your body stay strong.

Eat a balanced diet. Reach for a colorful mix of fruits and vegetables, good sources of fiber like beans and peas, and whole grains like whole wheat bread and brown rice every day. Avoid or limit drinks that are high in sugar and red or processed meat like beef, pork, hot dogs and sausages. You probably dont need to take vitamin or mineral supplements, unless your care team suggests them. In fact, taking more of certain vitamins or minerals than you need can have a negative effect on your cancer recovery, so be sure to discuss any supplements youre considering with your care team before taking them.

Exercise on most days of the week. Being active can improve your mood, boost self-esteem and reduce fatigue. Its even been shown to lower anxiety and depression and relieve nausea, pain and diarrhea.

Lean on a strong support system. Cancer might be all about the cellular changes in your body, but you know it certainly doesnt stop there. Taking care of your emotional health, whether it be cultivating a strong circle of friends and family as support or getting mental health services, can help you manage the stressors that cancer treatment and recovery can bring.

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Where Do These Numbers Come From

The American Cancer Society relies on information from the SEER* database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute , to provide survival statistics for different types of cancer.

The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for breast cancer in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by AJCC TNM stages . Instead, it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages:

• Localized: There is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the breast.
• Regional: The cancer has spread outside the breast to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
• Distant: The cancer has spread to distant parts of the body such as the lungs, liver or bones.

Breast Cancer : Much Progress But Work Remains

Mention that statistic, and many women in the U.S. immediately know it refers to their lifetime risk of getting breast cancer.

Although the statistic may stir up anxiety, those diagnosed with breast cancer today have a more positive prognosis than ever, experts say. Thats due to better understanding of the disease, wider choices of treatments, and more individualized treatment designed to reduce the risk of recurrence and lessen side effects.

While breast cancer incidence has risen by 0.5% per year in recent years, and it remains the second leading cause of cancer death in women, outpaced only by lung cancer, there are now more than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S.

If the disease is caught early, women with breast cancer have a survival rate of an astounding 99%, though that may dip to 28% if the cancer has spread.

But despite the progress, much work remains. Read on to see how far weve come in the fight against breast cancer and what experts say needs to happen next.

Breast Cancer: Not a Single Disease

Breast cancer is increasingly viewed as multiple different diseases, says Harold J. Burstein, MD, a breast oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

That discovery, in turn, has helped to individualize treatment and predict exactly how much treatment is needed for a specific patient, he and other experts say.

Molecular Diagnostics and ER-Positive Cancers

New Hope for HER2-Positive Cancers

Expanded Genetic Testing

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What Women Can Do Themselves

There are some things women can do themselves to lower their risk of late recurrence:

• Regular exercise is associated with a lower risk of death from breast cancer as well as death from all causes.
• It’s important for everyone to have their vitamin D level tested, although the role of vitamin D is still uncertain. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with bone loss, a concern for most people who have coped with breast cancer.
• Losing weight if you are overweight, or maintaining a healthy weight is important as well.

What Do The Hormone Receptor Test Results Mean

Test results will give you your hormone receptor status. It will say a tumor is hormone receptor-positive if at least 1% of the cells tested have estrogen and/or progesterone receptors. Otherwise, the test will say the tumor is hormone receptor-negative.

Hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cells have either estrogen or progesterone receptors or both. These breast cancers can be treated with hormone therapy drugs that lower estrogen levels or block estrogen receptors. Hormone receptor-positive cancers tend to grow more slowly than those that are hormone receptor-negative. Women with hormone receptor-positive cancers tend to have a better outlook in the short-term, but these cancers can sometimes come back many years after treatment.

Hormone receptor-negative breast cancers have no estrogen or progesterone receptors. Treatment with hormone therapy drugs is not helpful for these cancers. These cancers tend to grow faster than hormone receptor-positive cancers. If they come back after treatment, its often in the first few years. Hormone receptor-negative cancers are more common in women who have not yet gone through menopause.

Triple-positive cancers are ER-positive, PR-positive, and HER2-positive. These cancers can be treated with hormone drugs as well as drugs that target HER2.

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Current Understanding Of The Problem Of Late Recurrence

Earlier diagnosis of BC as a result of screening, coupled with the use of more effective systemic adjuvant therapy to prevent recurrences, has significantly improved clinical BC outcomes, particularly during the first 5 to 10years after diagnosis. Adjuvant chemotherapy and anti-HER2directed therapy substantially reduce the risk of recurrence, with the greatest risk reduction noted within the first 5years. Adjuvant endocrine treatment also reduces recurrence risk in patients with ER+ BC, with benefits observed within the first 5years and also after completing a 5-year course due to carryover effect associated with tamoxifen in particular.

In the workshop, we defined late recurrence as that occurring more than 5years after diagnosis and focused our deliberations on distant recurrence as opposed to local-regional recurrence or new ipsilateral or contralateral primary occurrences. Although the annual risk of distant recurrence is higher in the first 5years of follow-up and is decreased by adjuvant chemotherapy and ET, as many as one-half of the life-threatening BC recurrences and deaths in patients with ER+ HER2 BC take place in the succeeding 15 or more years, often after completion of adjuvant hormonal therapy . There is an urgent, unmet need to identify factors beyond standard clinical and pathologic features that affect the risk of recurrence and inform treatment decisions in individual patients.

Survival Of Breast Cancer Based On Stage

Statistics are given below for the overall survival rates for breast cancer based on certain stages of disease development.

I made this page many years ago, when there was nothing like this data available on the internet. Recently this page has been up-dated with the most recent statistics that we can find. Prognosis will be even better than the numbers here suggest because modern targeted treatments have improved a lot.

Breast cancer staging is determined by many factors and these include:-

• The presence and size of a tumor
• Whether the tumor is node negative or positive, this means whether lymph nodes are involved or not
• If the cancer has metastasized beyond the breast

If breast cancer is diagnosed and it is determined that there is no metastasis to the lymph nodes then the chances of survival are extremely good.

Once breast cancer has spread to the lymph nodes the mode of treatment tends to shift to the chemotherapy medicines, and the odds of survival are somewhat lower.

An updated page on breast cancer survival rates. A new page on Breast cancer TNM stage.

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Tumor Size And Lymph Node Status

The risk of recurrence is linked to the size of the original tumor as well as the number of positive lymph nodes, although these factors alone can’t explain all recurrences. In the 2017 study noted earlier, for women who were cancer-free after five years of hormonal therapy, the risk of recurrence was highest for those who had large tumors that had spread to four or more lymph nodes , and lowest with small, node-negative tumors.

The risk of recurrence of these small, node-negative tumors, however, remains significant at roughly 1% per year until at least 20 years post-diagnosis. Due to the life expectancy of metastatic breast cancer , the risk of death lags somewhat behind recurrence.

Within these ranges, the risk of recurrence was greater in women who had larger tumors than smaller tumors . Tumor grade and Ki-67 had only moderate predictive value, and progesterone receptor status and HER2 status had no predictive value in this study.

It’s noteworthy that women who had one to three positive lymph nodes were twice as likely to have their cancer recur at distant locations between five years and 20 years post-diagnosis than in the first five years, and those who have node-negative tumors were roughly four times more likely to have a late than an early recurrence.

What Types Of Breast Cancer Have The Highest Recurrence Rates

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found the risk of recurrence for all breast cancers was highest in the first five years from the initial cancer diagnosis at 10.4%. This was highest between the first and second years after the initial diagnosis. During the first five years after the initial diagnosis, patients with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer had lower rates of recurrence compared with those with ER negative disease. However, beyond five years, patients with ER positive disease had higher rates of recurrence.

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