Prognosis after Local Recurrence in Patients with Early-Stage Breast Cancer Treated without Chemotherapy

Background: Many women with early-stage breast cancer are predicted to be at sufficiently low risk for recurrence that they may forego chemotherapy. Nevertheless, some low-risk women will experience a local recurrence, and for them the risk of death increases significantly thereafter. The utility of initiating chemotherapy at the time of local recurrence has not been adequately addressed. The purpose of this study is to identify, in a hospital-based series of patients with early-stage breast cancer who were not treated with chemotherapy, those factors which predict death post local recurrence. Methods: We identified 135 women who were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer (node-negative