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Breast cancer and timing of surgery during menstrual cycle: a 5‐year analysis of 248 premenopausal women

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Abstract

In the present report, we retrospectively analyzed the impact of the timing of surgery during menstrual cycle on disease‐free and overall survival of 248 premenopausal patients with stage I/Il breast cancer who underwent surgery followed by anthracycline‐containing adjuvant chemotherapy. With a median follow‐up of 5 years, no statistically significant differences were observed in disease‐free or overall survival between women operated upon during the follicular (days 0–14) and the luteal (days 15–32) phase of the menstrual cycle. The impact on disease‐free and overall survival of lymph‐node status, tumor size and hormone receptor expression, but not of the phase of the menstrual cycle at the time of surgery, was confirmed by univariate and multivariate analysis.

However, when combined with hormone receptor status, the phase of the menstrual cycle at the time of surgery proved useful to better define the prognosis of primary breast cancer patients, with significantly longer disease‐free and overall survival for patients operated upon during the follicular phase and with positive hormone receptors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Medical Oncology I, Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Italy

    Michele Milella, Virginia Ferraresi, Alessandra Fabi, Francesco Cognetti & Paola Papaldo

  2. Service of Complementary Medical Oncology, Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Italy

    Cecilia Nisticò, Angela Vaccaro, Anna Maria D'Ottavio & Edmondo Terzoli

  3. Division of Surgery, Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Italy

    Claudio Botti

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Italy

    Diana Giannarelli

  5. Division of Medical Oncology II, Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Italy

    Massimo Lopez

  6. Special Service of Oncology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy

    Enrico Cortesi

  7. Division of Medical Oncology, Hospital S. Filippo Neri, Italy

    Carlo Maria Foggi

  8. Service of Medical Oncology, Hospital S. Eugenio, Rome, Italy

    Mauro Antimi

Authors
  1. Michele Milella
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  2. Cecilia Nisticò
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  3. Virginia Ferraresi
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  4. Angela Vaccaro
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  5. Alessandra Fabi
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  6. Anna Maria D'Ottavio
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  7. Claudio Botti
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  8. Diana Giannarelli
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  9. Massimo Lopez
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  10. Enrico Cortesi
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  11. Carlo Maria Foggi
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  13. Edmondo Terzoli
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  14. Francesco Cognetti
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  15. Paola Papaldo
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Milella, M., Nisticò, C., Ferraresi, V. et al. Breast cancer and timing of surgery during menstrual cycle: a 5‐year analysis of 248 premenopausal women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 55, 259–266 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006276120841

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