Distant recurrence risk following early ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence.

At present, the risk factors for distant recurrence among patients with early ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) require further investigation. Early IBTR is defined as occurring within 3 years following the initial surgery. In the current study, 40 patients with early IBTR were examined to determine the risk factors for distant recurrence. A node-positive status at the time of primary surgery and the administration of adjuvant chemotherapy following the primary surgery were significantly correlated with poorer distant disease-free survival (P=0.001 and P=0.002, respectively). Multivariate analyses revealed that the nodal status at the time of primary surgery was an independent predictive factor for distant recurrence (P=0.050). Therefore, the results of the current study revealed that the nodal status at the time of primary surgery was an independent predictive factor for distant recurrence among patients with early IBTR.