Patterns of breast cancer relapse.

Aims: Although breast cancer is the major cause of cancer-related death in women, there is little comprehensive information on long-term outcomes, particularly pertaining to site of relapse. The Strathfield Breast Centre (TSBC) is a multidisciplinary breast clinic that has collected patient data prospectively over 14 years.

Methods: All women with invasive, non-metastatic breast cancer, referred to TSBC from 1989 until 2002, were studied (n=2509).

Spinal chloroma presenting with triplegia in an aleukaemic patient.

Malignant myeloid blast cells may occasionally form a solid mass in tissues outside the haemopoietic system. These tumours are known as chloromas or granulocytic sarcomas. Chloromas occur most commonly in the context of acute myelogenous leukaemia but, rarely, they occur in the absence of other haematological disease, and may be misdiagnosed as lymphoma.