Personal Experience of 1,000 Breast Cancer Surgeries in Korea

Ahn, Sei Hyun

Abstract

PURPOSE: A specialized breast surgeon is important to give comprehensive treatments to breast cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics and treatment results of breast cancer patients in my breast clinic, and to share the experience of clinical management and data base recording and its clinical use.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
I had performed 1,018 breast cancer surgeries from Mar. 1992 to Mar. 1998 at the Breast Clinic in Asan Medical Center.
RESULTS
The results were as follows; 1,008 cases were female (99.0%), and 10 cases were male (1.0%). The peak incidence was in 40~49 years of age (36.5%), followed by 30~39 years (24.0%) and 50~59 years (23.3%). 647 cases (63.6%) were under the age of 50. The most common operative method was a modified radical mastectomy in 747 cases (73.4%), and breast conserving surgery was performed in 173 cases (17.0%). Immediate breast reconstruction was performed in 63 cases (tissue expander with implant in 50 cases, direct implant in 4 cases, TRAM flap in 8 cases, and LD flap in one case), and SSM (skin-sparing mastectomy) through circumareolar incision was done in 9 cases. According to TNM classificasion, the most common was stage II in 49.2% (501 cases), and the proportion of early-breast cancer (stage 0 and I) was 33.7%. The axillary lymph node metastasis was present in 43.5%. The 5-year overall survival and disease free survival rate was 81.4% and 70.7%. There was no local recurrence in breast conserving surgery by median follow-up of 32 months.
CONCLUSION
As a breast surgeon, I have tried to apply the appropriate operation
methods
according to the patients condition. The survival data was fairly good, and there was no local recurrence after breast conserving surgery yet. Data computerization was very useful for evaluating the characteristics of the patients.