UC San Diego

Background

Controversy exists regarding optimal treatment of occult breast cancer (OBC). Treatment options include mastectomy alone (MAST), radiation alone (XRT), or mastectomy with radiation (MXRT).

Methods

We queried the National Cancer Database from 2004 to 2014 for patients with OBC who underwent MAST, XRT, or MXRT. We utilized propensity score matching to perform three head-to-head comparisons. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to compare overall survival (OS).

Results

A total of 190 patients received XRT, 237 received MAST, and 244 received MXRT. In the MXRT vs. XRT comparison, 5-year OS was 78.2% and 82.8%, respectively. In the MXRT vs. MAST comparison, 5-year OS was 81.5% and 86.7%, respectively. In the MAST vs. XRT comparison, 5-year OS was 83.2% and 82.5%, respectively. There was no difference in OS for all paired comparisons.

Conclusions

There were no OS differences in patients undergoing MAST, XRT, or MXRT, suggesting that breast conservation can be considered in patients with OBC.