Article Text
Abstract
Background Breast cancer is characterised by its extreme frequency. Its management is now dependent on the prognostic factors according to the guidelines of the experts.
Purpose The aim of our study was to analyse the adjuvant systemic management of operable breast cancer in Morocco, relapse-free survival and the recurrence-associated prognostic factors.
Material and methods This was a retrospective study of patients treated for breast cancer at the Mohamed VI Centre for Cancer Treatment of Casablanca for 3 years, from 2010 to 2012. Data related to management strategies, relapse and prognostic factors were retrospectively collected from patients’ records in 2018 and statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 20.0 software. Relapse-free survival was calculated with the Kaplan–Meier method, and compared with the Log-rank test with an alfa risk of 5%. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify recurrence-associated factors.
Results Six-hundred and one patients including six males were included in our study. The mean age at diagnosis was 49.2±10.8 years. The majority of tumours were ductal carcinomas of 2 to 5 cm and grade II, with luminal/HER2 negative phenotype, stage II and III. Ninety-three per cent of patients had an average of six cycles of chemotherapy, mainly the AC60-T and FEC100-T protocols. Tamoxifen was prescribed to 87% of patients with luminal tumours and the HER2-directed therapy was prescribed to 23% of patients. The 5 year relapse-free survival was 77.5% and the hormonotherapy significantly improved it, while HER2 targeting therapy showed no significant effect on relapse-free survival. The recurrence-associated factors were tumour size, grade SBR, the presence of vascular emboli and the involvement of axillary lymph nodes.
Conclusion Our results show that systemic management and relapse-free survival depend on tumour phenotype, and highlight prognostic factors known to be associated with relapse.
References and/or acknowledgements We are thankfull to Professor Samir Ahid, member of the Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmacoepidemiology Research team at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Morocco for his help and support.
No conflict of interest.