How Soon Does Triple Negative Breast Cancer Recur

By Laura W

October 22, 2021

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Risk Factors For Distant Recurrence

Predicting disease recurrence in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer using circula…

There are several risk factors that raise the risk of recurrence overall . These include:

Tumour size: Larger tumours are more likely to recur than smaller ones both early and late.
Positive lymph nodes: Tumours that have spread to lymph nodes are more likely to recur at any time than those that have not.
Age at diagnosis: Breast cancer recurrence is more common in younger women.
Treatments received and response to treatments: Both chemotherapy and hormonal therapy reduce the risk of recurrence
Tumour Characteristics: More aggressive cancers are more likely to recur than less aggressive tumours , especially in the first five years. We also take into account the receptor status and an estimate of proliferation .

There are also factors that do not appear to affect the risk of recurrence. Recurrence rates are the same for women who have a mastectomy or lumpectomy with radiation and are also the same for women who have a single vs. double mastectomy.

What Are The Types Of Breast Cancer Recurrence

If you develop cancer in the opposite, untreated breast , you receive a new breast cancer diagnosis. This isnt the same as breast cancer recurrence.

When breast cancer returns, it may be:

Local: Cancer returns in the same breast or chest area as the original tumor.
Regional: Cancer comes back near the original tumor, in lymph nodes in the armpit or collarbone area.
Distant: Breast cancer spreads away from the original tumor to the lungs, bones, brain or other parts of the body. This is metastatic cancer, often referred to as stage 4 breast cancer.

Frequency And Characterisation Of Late Events

illustrates the cumulative probabilities of remaining free from event for RFI, RFS, and DRFS. The 10-year RFI was 97%, RFS 91%, and DRFS 92%. The 15-year RFI was 95%, RFS 83%, and DRFS 84%. Of the 873 patients, 22 had late recurrences. Sixteen of the recurrences were distant. Sites of distant metastases included the lungs/pleura , distant lymph nodes , bones , liver , central nervous system , pancreas , and distant skin . Six patients initially presented with local recurrence only, with 5 presenting with ipsilateral breast masses and the other with regional lymph node recurrence. Of the 22 patients who had recurrences, 16 died, with a median time to death after recurrence of 1.2 years . There were 57 deaths: 28.1% were attributed to breast cancer, 63.2% to other, and 8.8% to unknown causes in the absence of documented recurrence. show comparison of patient, tumour, and treatment characteristics between patients who had an event and those who did not for each of the three end points in this study.

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What Are Risk Factors For Breast Cancer Recurrence

Anyone with a breast cancer diagnosis can have a recurrence. Your risk of cancer recurrence depends on several factors:

Age: Women who develop breast cancer before age 35 are more likely to get breast cancer again.
Cancer stage: Cancer stage at the time of diagnosis correlates with the risk of the cancer being able to recur. Several factors determine cancer stage: tumor size, cancer grade and cancer spread to lymph nodes or other parts of the body. Cancer grade indicates how unusual cancer cells look in comparison to healthy cells.
Cancer type: Aggressive cancers like inflammatory breast cancer and triple-negative breast cancer are harder to treat. Theyre more likely to come back and spread.

Treatment For Breast Cancer Recurrence

If your care team thinks you might have a cancer recurrence, theyll recommend diagnostic tests, like lab tests, imaging or biopsies, both to be sure the cancer has come back and to get more information to guide your treatment.

Treatment options depend on where the cancer has recurred and what treatment youve had before:

Local recurrence is likely to be treated surgically first with a mastectomy if you didnt have one already or a surgical removal of the tumor if you did. After surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are commonly used, as well as hormone therapy or targeted therapy if your kind of cancer will respond to one or both of them.
Regional recurrence is also typically treated first with surgery to remove affected lymph nodes. After the surgery, youll likely have radiation and possibly chemotherapy, hormone therapy and/or targeted therapy, too.
Distant recurrence is mainly treated with drug therapychemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy or a combination of these. Surgery and/or radiation might be used, too, but only in cases where the aim is relieving symptoms.

Expert

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When Cancer Recurs After 5 Years

When cancer recurs at a distant site it is no longer early-stage breast cancer. The characteristics of cancer may change as well. Tumors that are initially estrogen receptor-positive may now be negative and vice versa . HER2 status can also change.

For this reason, and because there are now a number of alterations that can be targeted , it’s important for people to have a biopsy and genetic testing of their tumor .

Local Or Regional Treatments For Stage Iv Breast Cancer

Although systemic drugs are the main treatment for stage IV breast cancer, local and regional treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy, or regional chemotherapy are sometimes used as well. These can help treat breast cancer in a specific part of the body, but they are very unlikely to get rid of all of the cancer. These treatments are more likely to be used to help prevent or treat symptoms or complications from the cancer.

Radiation therapy and/or surgery may also be used in certain situations, such as:

When the breast tumor is causing an open wound in the breast
To treat a small number of metastases in a certain area, such as the brain
To help prevent bone fractures
When an area of cancer spread is pressing on the spinal cord
To treat a blood vessel blockage in the liver
To provide relief of pain or other symptoms

In some cases, regional chemo may be useful as well.

If your doctor recommends such local or regional treatments, it is important that you understand their goalwhether it is to try to cure the cancer or to prevent or treat symptoms.

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Breast Cancer Recurrence Risk Lingers Years After Treatment Ends

Steady rates of recurrence in women with estrogen receptor-positive disease could influence decisions about long-term therapy.

Even 20 years after a diagnosis, women with a type of breast cancer fueled by estrogen still face a substantial risk of cancer returning or spreading, according to a new analysis from an international team of investigators published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Standard treatment for estrogen receptor-positive, or ER-positive, breast cancer includes five years of the endocrine-based treatments tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors, both of which are taken daily as a pill.

Researchers from the Early Breast Cancer Trialists Collaborative Group analyzed data from 88 clinical trials involving 62,923 women with ER-positive breast cancer. The patients all received endocrine therapy for five years and were free of cancer when they stopped therapy.

Over the next 15 years, however, a steady number of these women saw their cancer spread throughout the body, as late as 20 years after the initial diagnosis.

Even though these women remained free of recurrence in the first five years, the risk of having their cancer recur elsewhere from years five to 20 remained constant, says senior study author Daniel F. Hayes, M.D., Stuart B. Padnos Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.

Tumor Size And Lymph Node Status

Circulating tumour DNA used to predict disease recurrence for early triple-negative breast cancer

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.

Late Recurrence Rate and Lymph Node Status
Years After Diagnosis
31%	52%

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.

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Breast Cancers Survival Is Influenced By Tumor Grade

Grade identifies the size and shape of the malignant breast cancer cells. At the event the breast cancer cells look very different than normal breast tissue cells, and random in appearance, they can be called, that was badly differentiated and described as âhigh gradeâ. Higher level breast cancer cells tend to really have a poorer prognosis.

Early Stage Clinical Trials

In a proof of concept study published in the Lancet, authors investigated olaparib in patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer with germline BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations. They investigated two doses of olaparib at 400 mg BD and 100 mg BD. Approximately half of patients in this study had TNBC with the remainder having other histological subtypes. Patients were heavily pretreated with a median of 3 prior chemotherapy regimens and platinum sensitivity was not needed for trial enrolment. Overall response rates were impressive in this heavily pre-treated population at 41% in the group receiving the higher dose and 22% in the group receiving the lower dose.

Kaufman et al investigated olaparib further in a large phase 2 basket trial with 298 patients in a single-arm study. Patients with any advanced solid-organ malignancy were included if they harboured a gBRCA mutation. In the breast cohort, patients may have received multiple lines of treatment and there was no requirement for platinum sensitivity. Response rates were modest with only 8 of 62 patients responding in this unselected population.

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How Can I Prevent Breast Cancer Recurrence

Healthcare providers dont know why some people experience breast cancer recurrence. A recurrence isnt your fault. You didnt do anything wrong to cause it or fail to do something more to prevent it.

Certain medications may reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence in people who have early stage breast cancer. For estrogen-receptive breast cancer, hormonal therapies including tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors block either the activity of estrogen or the bodys production of estrogen. Chemotherapy may also be recommended to reduce risk of breast cancer recurrence.

Early diagnosis may make it easier to treat a recurrence. Follow your healthcare providers recommendations for mammograms and other screenings. You should also perform regular breast self-exams. Get familiar with how your breasts look and feel so you can see your provider quickly if you notice changes. And remember that most breast changes occur for reasons other than cancer.

How Is Breast Cancer Recurrence Managed Or Treated

Your treatment depends on the type of cancer recurrence, as well as past treatments. If cancer develops in a reconstructed breast, your surgeon may want to remove the breast implant or skin flap.

Treatments for local and regional breast cancer recurrence may include:

Mastectomy: Your surgeon removes the affected breast and sometimes lymph nodes.
Chemotherapy:Chemotherapy circulates in blood, killing cancer cells.
Hormone therapy:Tamoxifen and other hormone therapies treat cancers that thrive on estrogen .
Immunotherapy:Immunotherapy engages your bodys immune system to fight cancer.
Radiation therapy: High-energy X-ray beams damage and destroy cancer cells.
Targeted therapy: Treatments target specific cancer cell genes or proteins.

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Brca1 Inherited Gene Mutations And Tnbc

Most breast cancers related to a BRCA1 inherited gene mutation are both triple negative and basal-like .

TNBC may also be related to a BRCA2 inherited gene mutation .

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends people diagnosed with TNBC at age 60 or younger get genetic testing .

Learn more about genetic testing.

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Facts

1. Hormone treatments is not possible with this type of breast cancer.2. This is a much rarer type of breast cancer that affects a higher rate of Hispanics, African Americans, younger people and people that have a BRACA 1 gene mutation.3. Approximately 80% of BRACA 1 gene mutation tumors are triple negative.4. There is a strong correlation between an autosomal inheritance pattern and TNBC but most studies fall short of calling it a causal relationship.5. This cancer is harder to treat, is more likely to recur in the first five years after treatment and can be more aggressive BUT all of the factors including successful treatment largely depend on the stage in which the cancer is identified and the grade of the tumor.6. TNBC has a higher recurrence rate in the first five years after remission while other cancers like estrogen receptor positive cancers have much lower rates of recurrence during the first five years of remission.7. While TNBC recurs at a higher rate in the first five years once the five year mark passes with each additional year of survival the odds of recurrence is drastically reduced.8. After 5 years the chance of recurrence of TNBC is reduced by 50%.9. With each year after the 5 year mark the chance of recurrence is reduced by an additional 10%-15%.10. Long term survivors have almost a 0% rate that the disease will recur. With other breast cancers the recurrence rate climbs after the first 5 years.

Basal Cell Breast Cancer

Basal cell breast cancer is a type of breast cancer with a clear pattern of changes in proteins in the cells.

Cancer doctors recognise basal cell breast cancer when they examine the cancer cells under a microscope. It is often linked with triple negative breast cancer.

Basal cell breast cancers are usually triple negative. And most triple negative breast cancers are basal cell cancers. They are similar types of breast cancer, but not exactly the same.

Immunogenic Potential Of Tnbc

How a triple-negative breast cancer survivor became cancer-free

The tumour microenvironment plays an important role in defining the interaction of our immune system with tumours. In TNBC, the TME is characterized by higher levels of vascular endothelial like growth factor , tumour infiltrating lymphocytes and tumour associated macrophages in contrast to other types of breast cancer. Additionally, there is a high level of expression of TILs in patients with TNBC. These have been shown to be a useful prognostic indicator across malignancies. TNBC has been shown to have consistently elevated TILs in contrast to other subtypes and TILs have been shown to be associated with improved survival. Ibrahim et al found that patients with lymphocyte-predominant breast cancer had a 40% pathological complete response rate compared to 7% of those patients without. High TILS are more frequent in TNBC compared to HER2-positive and luminal tumours and are associated with improved disease free survival and OS in early stage breast cancer. This is consistent with findings in other malignancies demonstrating the important role of the immune system in cancer biology and prognostication. All of these features demonstrate that the TME of TNBC is highly immunogenic.

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What Are The Complications Of Breast Cancer Recurrence

Breast cancer that comes back can be harder to treat. The same therapy isnt always effective again. Tumors can develop a tolerance to certain treatments like chemotherapy. Your healthcare provider will try other therapies. You may be able to try drugs under development in clinical trials.

If breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body, your healthcare providers still treat it like breast cancer. For instance, breast cancer cells that move to the lungs cause breast cancer in the lungs not lung cancer. Metastatic breast cancer is more difficult to treat than cancer in only one part of the body.

You may feel stressed, depressed or anxious. A mental health counselor and support groups can help.

Stages Of Breast Cancer

The stage of breast cancer is based on the size and location of the tumor, as well as whether the cancer has spread beyond the part of the breast in which it originated. To determine the stage of breast cancer, healthcare professionals use a scale of stage 0 to stage 4.

Stage 0 breast cancers are isolated in one part of the breast, such as a duct or lobule, and show no sign of spreading into other tissue.

Stage 1 is typically localized, although further local growth or spread may cause the cancer to move into stage 2.

In stage 3, the cancer may be larger and has affected the lymph system. Stage 4 cancer has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes, and into other organs and tissues of the body.

In addition to stages, breast cancers are given grades based on the size, shape, and activity of the cells in the tumor. A higher-grade cancer means a greater percentage of cells look and act abnormal, or they no longer resemble normal, healthy cells.

On a scale of 1 to 3, with 3 being the most serious, TNBC is often labeled grade 3.

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