Title: Primary Synchronous and Metachronous Malignant Tumors in Breast Cancer: Retrospective Cross-sectional Study and Review of the Literature
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women globally. It is considered as a risk factor of developing second primary cancers. In our study we want to determine the pathological particularities and the different sites of sporadic, synchronous (SPC) and metachronous (MPC) primary cancers of breast cancer.
Our study was retrospective over a period of 15 years from 2000 to 2015. It involved 36 patients collected in our laboratory. We excluded from our series all the patients who were carriers of a 2nd cancer falling within the framework of lynch syndrome as well as the patients who were lost to follow- up and thus patients who have developed cancers secondary to breast cancer treatment. Among the 36 reported cases, 8 (22%) presented with SPC and the mean of discovery and diagnosis was in less of 3 months. The other 28 cases developed MPC. 9 of these 28 patients (25%) developed primary cancers from sites other than the breast. The diagnosis of MPC was made between 1 and more than 10 years. The underlying table shows the clinical and chronological particularities of the cancers diagnosed in our population.
Discussion and conclusion: Patients with breast cancer are at risk for second or more primary malignancies (1,2). It is difficult to objectify a relationship, especially genetic, between breast cancer and other sporadic primary cancers (3). Additional studies on a larger number of patients are needed in order to establish a link in the genesis of metachronous and synchronous breast cancers outside of syndromic associations.
Keywords: Breast Cancer, Sporadic Primary Cancer, Synchronous Cancer, Metachronous Cancer