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Epidemiological Follow-up 15 Years after the Breast Cancer Scandal in Essen.

ABSTRACT: Purpose: In the years 1993-1996 a number of presumably false-positive breast cancer diagnoses were made by a pathologist in Essen. A follow-up, undertaken 15 years later, investigated how many women had tumour recurrence and/or metastasis or had died from breast cancer. Material and Methods: A total of 151 (68?%) out of 222 women could be traced. One hundred and forty-seven (66.2?%) of the 222 women were alive. The observed survival rate, number of recurrences and/or metastases, and number of deaths from breast cancer were compared with data from the Munich Tumour Registry. The number of breast cancer cases among daughters of the affected women was ascertained. Results: The total observed survival rate at follow-up after 15 years was 93?%, a much higher figure than the survival rate of 45?% given by the Munich Tumour Registry. Recurrence and/or metastasis or death from breast cancer occurred in 9/222 cases (4.1?%). The incidence for these events calculated according to data from the Munich Tumour Registry is 13?%. Two daughters (2.2?%) out of a total of 90 were diagnosed with breast cancer whereas, according to the German Cancer Research Centre, the expected rate would have been between 5 and 10?%. Conclusions: The results of our follow-up after 15 years show that more women survived than expected and that the number of recurrences and/or metastases and deaths due to breast cancer was lower than expected. Fewer daughters of affected women were diagnosed with breast cancer than expected. These results support our suspicion that not all women diagnosed with breast cancer by a pathologist in Essen actually had breast cancer.

SUBMITTER: Hauth EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4168321 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Epidemiological Follow-up 15 Years after the Breast Cancer Scandal in Essen.

Hauth E A M EA Berkemeyer S S Jaeger H H Forsting M M Hoffmann B B Jöckel K-H KH

Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde 20120601 6

<b>Purpose:</b> In the years 1993-1996 a number of presumably false-positive breast cancer diagnoses were made by a pathologist in Essen. A follow-up, undertaken 15 years later, investigated how many women had tumour recurrence and/or metastasis or had died from breast cancer. <b>Material and Methods:</b> A total of 151 (68 %) out of 222 women could be traced. One hundred and forty-seven (66.2 %) of the 222 women were alive. The observed survival rate, number of recurrences and/or metastases, an ...[more]

PMID: 25284840

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Project description:Plasma estrogen and androgen levels are positively associated with postmenopausal breast cancer risk, but how long a single blood measurement can predict risk and whether the associations vary by tumor hormone receptor status remain unclear. We conducted nested case-control analyses within the Nurses' Health Study. Blood samples were collected in 1989-1990 and again in 2000-2002. Among postmenopausal women not using postmenopausal hormones at blood collection, 707 cases were diagnosed through June 2010, with two matched controls per case. We used unconditional logistic regression analyses to estimate the relative risks controlling for other breast cancer risk factors. The intra-class correlation coefficients for two blood measurements collected 10 years apart ranged from 0.54 (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, DHEAS) to 0.74 (sex hormone-binding globulin, SHBG). Overall, women in the top (vs. bottom) 25 % of levels of estradiol, free estradiol, testosterone, free testosterone, and DHEAS were at a 50-110 % higher risk of breast cancer (p (trend) < 0.001). SHBG was inversely associated with risk (p (trend) = 0.004). RRs were similar when comparing cases diagnosed 1-10 versus 11-20 years (or 16-20 years) after blood collection (p (interaction) > 0.2). Except for DHEAS, the associations varied significantly by hormone receptor status (p (heterogeneity) ? 0.02). For example, the RRs (95 % CIs) comparing the highest versus lowest quartile were 2.8 (2.0-4.0; p (trend) < 0.001) for ER +/PR + tumors versus 1.1 (0.6-2.1; p (trend) = 0.98) for ER-/PR- tumors for estradiol, and 1.8 (1.3-2.5; p (trend) < 0.001) versus 0.6 (0.3-1.2; p (trend) = 0.35) for testosterone. One measure of circulating sex hormones in postmenopausal women can predict risk of hormone receptor positive breast cancer for up to 16-20 years.

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Epidemiological Follow-up 15 Years after the Breast Cancer Scandal in Essen.

Publications

Epidemiological Follow-up 15 Years after the Breast Cancer Scandal in Essen.

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