INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in India; however, there are no studies addressing long-term survival (10 years and above). This study sought to evaluate long-term oncological outcome among women with breast cancer treated with a curative intent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort analysis of 1301 breast cancer patients of all stages who had received primary treatment with curative intent from 2004 to 2010 at a single cancer institution of India. RESULTS: A total of 1301 breast cancer patients were available for final analysis. The median age was 51 years (range, 21–86 years). 70.25% of the patients had early breast cancer (EBC), 21.9% had locally advanced breast cancer, and 7.85% of the patients with de novo metastatic disease also underwent surgery. 56.5% of the patients had hormone-sensitive tumors, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 over expression was seen in 17%, and triple-negative tumors accounted for 26.2% of the patients. The 5- and 10-year overall survival (OS) of the entire cohort was 79% and 66%, and the 5- and 10-year breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) was 79% and 70%, respectively. OS and BCSS were 51% and 58%, respectively, at 15-year follow-up after primary cancer treatment. On multivariate analysis, the factors associated with prolonged survival were age ≤50 years, EBC, and treatment during the later period (2008–2010). CONCLUSION: Difference between OS and BCSS was found to have an increasing trend during 10–15-year follow-up, the difference being 4% at 10 years and 7% at 15 years. Age ≤50 years, early-stage disease at presentation, and primary cancer treatment in later years (2008–2010) were favorable predictors for 10-year survival.

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Hemostasis is a fundamental principle of surgery for which electrocoagulation is universally used. Bipolar electrocautery has an advantage over monopolar electrocautery in terms of the precision of the extent of tissue coagulation and the lateral extent of thermal tissue injury. However, secondary to the thermal changes induced in the tissue due to electric current passage, there is charring of tissue, which adheres to the cautery tip. This, not only decreases its effectiveness, but also, by getting avulsed while removing the cautery tip from the surgical field, causes rebleeding and more trauma to the tissue. Irrigation of the surgical field during application of cautery reduces the charring effect, thereby improving the efficiency and efficacy. Irrigation-coupled electrocautery devices are available but are costly to acquire and maintain. We describe a simple and reliable version of an irrigation-coupled cautery device, which is of immense functional utility in our experience. It decreases the amount of charring of the tissue and its adherence to the bipolar forceps tips, thereby decreasing the frustrating loss of effectiveness and also increases the life of the bipolar forceps as cleaning needs to be less frequent. By virtue of its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, it can be used in almost all hospitals and situations.

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