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Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in Polish women. Management of breast cancer includes surgical treatment as well as adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, and combination regimens. One of the adverse consequences of oncological management of breast cancer may involve changes in frontal plane body posture. The objective of the study was to assess the frontal plane body posture changes in women treated for breast cancer. A prospective study including 101 of female breast cancer patients subjected to surgical treatment in the period from October 2011 to October 2012 (mastectomy was performed in 51 cases while breast conserving therapy was administered in the remaining 50 cases). The body posture in the frontal plane was assessed using the computer-assisted postural assessment system with Moiré fringe analysis. No statistically significant differences were observed in pre-operational postural parameters of interest. Exam II revealed highly significant differences in SLA values; results suggesting more pronounced dysfunction were observed in the MAS group. Exam III revealed highly significant differences in PIA, SH, SD and SLA values; results suggesting more pronounced dysfunction were observed in the MAS group. Undesirable postural changes occur both in women who were treated with radical mastectomy and in those who underwent breast-conserving surgery; breast-conserving surgery is associated with decreased severity in postural abnormalities.

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According to current therapeutic guidelines, finding micrometastases in the sentinel node (SLN) of a patient with non-advanced breast cancer is not an absolute indication for adjuvant axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). This work presents our experiences regarding this clinical problem. 1071 breast cancer patients were referred for sentinel node biopsy between January 2004 and December 2011. Metastases were found in 245 of the removed lymph nodes. In 49 patients lymph node changes turned out to be micrometastases or isolated tumor cells (ITC). ALND was performed in 38 cases of sentinel node micrometastases or ICTs. In three patients involvement of other axillary lymph nodes was found in the studied tissue material (7.9% vs. 37.9% for metastases >2mm). The remaining patients with micrometastases in the SLN (11/49) were treated conservatively. No local axillary recurrences or neoplastic metastases were found in this group of patients with SLN micrometastases. Mean follow-up period in patients who had undergone ALND was 18.0 months (4 to 60 months) and 21.4 months (9-40 months) in patients without ALND. Non-radical surgical treatment in the presence of SLN micrometastases in patients with non-advanced breast cancer does not lead to therapeutic failure (local axillary recurrences, distant metastases). Obtaining favorable outcomes of conservative treatment in the analyzed group of patients does not require additional modification of the adjuvant therapy.

According to the St. Gallen 2011 consensus, proper qualification of breast cancer patients for treatment requires taking into consideration the division into biological types of neoplasms. The goal of this work was to assess the prevalence of all biological types of breast cancer in the population of Kuyavian-Pomeranian province. We determined the influence of particular types of neoplasms on the degree of disease progression and the choice of therapeutic management. The study was conducted on a group of 2653 patients treated surgically due to malignant breast tumors in the Oncology Centre in Bydgoszcz. In the analyzed clinical material we determined the biological type of cancer as well as other prognostic factors. The most commonly identified types of cancer were luminal B1 type (38.4%) and luminal A type (27.4% of cases), followed by a triple-negative type, luminal B2 type and HER2-positive type (respectively: 11.4%, 10.2%, and 6.9% of patients). Estrogen receptors were present in 81.1% and progesterone receptors in 71.4% of subjects. HER2 overexpression was identified in 17.3% of patients. Routine use of a biology-based division into cancer types influences the choice of anti-cancer treatment. Diagnosis of luminal A type of tumor more commonly than other biological types of cancer coexists with lower clinical and pathological disease staging. It allows for more frequent use of sparing surgical techniques in patients. It also makes systemic neoadjuvant chemotherapy unnecessary in the majority of patients (differences in such cases exhibit statistical significance of p < 0.0001).