The characteristics of bilateral breast cancer patients

Introduction. Bilateral breast cancer (BBC) consists of 2–12% all cases of breast carcinoma. In relation to time between the first and second cancer diagnosis, the synchronous (s-BBC) or metachronous (m-BBC) bilateral breast cancer is defined. Material and methods. The clinicopathologic characteristics of 303 patients treated between 1963 and 2014 for bilateral breast cancer was presented. Synchronous BBC was diagnosed in 70 patients (23.1%) and remaining 233 patients (76.9%) developed metachronous BBC. Patients with m-BBC in comparison to s-BBC were younger (mean age: 51.4 vs 60.6 years), the positive family cancer history was rare (36.7% vs 48.5%), and more frequently these patients were before menopause (65.7% vs 44.3%). While the lobular type of breast cancer which consisted of 6.6% cases in first breast and 8.9% cases of second carcinomas, more frequently was presented in s-BBC (8.6%) in comparison to m-BBC (6%). Results. The mean time of follow up was 174 months. The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 89.3% and 76.1%, respectively. The presence of s-BBC connected with worse prognosis; the 5- and 10-year overall survival were 93.1% and 82% for m-BBC and 76.4% and 52.1% for s-BBC (p = 0.00244, log-rank test).