Central nervous system relapse in patients with breast cancer is associated with advanced stages, with the presence of circulating occult tumor cells and with the HER2/neu status

Table 1 Breast cancer patient characteristics during the period January 2000–June 2003

	Early stage breast cancer (n = 253)	Advanced/metastatic stage breast cancer (n = 239)	Central nervous system relapse (n = 51)	P value
Age (years) (median (range))	51 (28–75)	53 (31–81)	55 (30–70)
Menopausal status
Premenopausal	109 (43.1)	108 (45.2)	31 (60.8)	0.071
Postmenopausal	144 (56.9)	131 (54.8)	20 (39.2)
Estrogen receptor status
Positive	118 (46.6)	126 (52.7)	25 (49)	0.51
Negative	120 (47.4)	105 (43.9)	25 (49)
Unknown	15 (6)	8 (3.3)	1 (2)
Histology
Ductal	195 (77)	182 (76.1)	38 (74.5)	0.287^b
Lobular	20 (7.9)	21 (8.7)	5 (9.8)
Other	38 (15.1)	36 (16.2)	8 (15.6)
HER-2 status
Positive	31 (12.3)	43 (18)	27 (52.9)	0.002
Negative	130 (51.4)	124 (51.9)	16 (6.2)
Unknown	92 (36.4)	72 (30.1)	8 (4.8)
Dominant disease localization at baseline
Viscera	-	134 (56)	27 (66)^α	0.036^c
Soft tissues	-	63 (26.3)	6 (20)
Bones	-	42 (17.5)	8 (14)
Cytokeratin 19 mRNA-positive cells
Positive	29 (12)	49 (21)	33 (65)	0.041
Negative	224 (88)	190 (79)	18 (35)
Taxane-based treatment
Yes	127	178 (75)	39 (12.8)
No	126	61 (25)	12 (6.4)
Response to chemotherapy	-
Complete response + partial response	-	117 (49)	23 (56.3)^a	0.59
Stable disease	-	69 (29)	8 (18.7)	0.42
Progressive disease	-	53 (22)	10 (25)	0.55

Data presented as n (%). ^aProportion of patients corresponds to the 41 patients with advanced/metastatic disease. ^b P value corresponds to the incidence of central nervous system relapses between patients with lobular and ductal histology. ^c P value corresponds to the incidence of central nervous system relapses between patients with visceral disease localization and other disease sites (soft tissue + bones).

ISSN: 1465-542X