Effect of postoperative radiotherapy for squamous cell cancer of the breast in a surveillance epidemiology and end results population-based study

Abstract

The therapeutic value of postoperative radiotherapy (RT) for squamous cell cancer of the breast (SCCB) is unclear. This retrospective study used a population-based national registry to determine the impact of postoperative RT on survival of women with SCCB. The Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database was used to identify females with SCCB who underwent primary surgical resection from 1973 to 2012. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox regression proportional hazard methods were used to determine the impact of RT following resection associated with cause-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). A total of 523 patients met the eligibility criteria. The median follow-up time was 55 months, the 10-year CSS and OS rates were 65.6%, and 46.0%, respectively. A total of 167 patients (31.9%) received postoperative RT. Multivariate analysis indicated that advanced pT and pN stage, and no postoperative RT were independently associated with poor OS; advanced pT and pN stage were independently associated with poor CSS. Postoperative RT was significantly associated with improved 10-year OS (54.5% vs. 42.0%, P =.001), but had no effect on CSS (P =.217). Analysis of patients with different stages of SCCB indicated that RT was associated with improved CSS (P =.047) and OS (P <.001) in those with stage II cancer and improved OS in patients with stage pN0 cancer (P <.001). Postoperative RT improved the survival of SCCB patients, especially in those with stage II and stage pN0 cancer.

Clinicopathological features, treatment patterns, and prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the breast: an NCDB analysis

“…Two studies [16, 17] reported no benefit of RT on OS, but the small sample sizes in these studies limited their statistical power. Using the SEER database, Wu et al [18] reported that RT was significantly associated with improved OS but not cancer-specific survival, which is difficult to explain. Furthermore, they reported that RT was significantly associated with improved CSS in stage II SCC patients, but the analysis was not adjusted for ER, PR or HER2.…”

Rare epithelial breast cancer: surgery and adjuvant therapy

“…Other studies have found that adjuvant radiotherapy following BCS simply provided no significant benefit on OS in patients with PSCC, deviating away from the standard management of more common breast tumours although that may be due to the small sample size ( 129 ). However, Wu et al found that adjuvant radiotherapy had a significant association with improved overall survival in patients with PSCC particularly Stage II tumour and PN0 ( 130 ).…”

Survival rate prediction of breast cancer patients of 0-IV stages with and without radiotherapy via a revised Taylor series expansion algorithm: A population-based study in Taiwan

“…The advantage of revised algorithm is to provide a quantitative index, either lethal frequency or average life, in order to imply the whole survival rate curve under any specific circumstance if and only if the estimated exponential function can properly fit the original data. Therefore, the revised algorithm based on the Taylor series expansion provided the accurate prediction of (i) the survival rate of breast cancer patients, (ii) effectiveness verification of radiotherapy for colon and rectum cancer patients [7, 16], and (iii) re-evaluation of the disease progression for patients of both genders reported by other researchers [17].…”

“…Chuang et al investigated the survival rate for breast cancer patients at N1 stage from the cancer registry data bank and revealed a higher survival rate of patients undergone radiotherapy treatment, as compared to those who did not [6]. Wu et al analyzed the data of breast cancer patients from 1973 to 2012 and reported that radiotherapy improved both cause-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) of patients that underwent the respective surgical operation [7].…”