Use of computerized tomography in the workup of patients with locally recurrent breast cancer

Local-regional recurrence of breast cancer following surgery has remained at 10-30% for decades. Unfortunately control of the recurrence with radiation therapy is only 50% successful. Recent reports have indicated that CT scans of such patients reveal unsuspected regional disease in 38-64% of cases; this might explain the high rate of re-recurrence after radiation therapy. The authors have conducted a retrospective review of 30 patients with recurrent chest wall disease who had undergone subsequent thoracic CT-scanning. In 22/30 patients disease was found to be more extensive than could be determined by more conventional means; in 13/30 this lead to significant changes in treatment. They are continuing their study to determine if these treatment changes have resulted in improvement of patient outcome.