Retrospective study of survival after development of contralateral disease among South Korean breast cancer patients

Contralateral breast cancer (CBC) is the most frequently diagnosed primary malignancy in patients with breast cancer. Studies of survival after development of CBC have shown inconsistent results. A retrospective study at Asan Medical Center (Seoul, South Korea) investigated overall survival after CBC. The study included 16,251 patients with stage 0 to III breast cancer. The group of 418 patients who developed CBC showed no significant difference in overall survival or cancer-specific survival compared with patients without CBC, although early development of CBC (within 1.5 years after surgery for primary disease) and development of CBC in patients with HR-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer was associated with survival. The authors conclude that these results may provide valuable information for counseling breast cancer patients who are considering prophylactic contralateral mastectomy.