Late Recurrence in Breast Cancer: To Run after the Oxen or to Try to Close the Barn?
Laboratory of Medical Statistics, Biometry and Epidemiology “Giulio A. Maccacaro”, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health & DSRC, University of Milan, Campus Cascina Rosa, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, 20133 Milano, Italy
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Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Marija Balić
Cancers 2021, 13(9), 2026; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13092026
Received: 19 March 2021
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Revised: 10 April 2021
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Accepted: 19 April 2021
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Published: 22 April 2021
Simple Summary
The initial treatment of early breast cancer has achieved important clinical results over time. However, late recurrences after many years of disease-free survival remain an open question, which has recently attracted the attention of a few researchers. The authors of this commentary suggest that the approach emerging from scientific meetings regarding this subject is marred by the lack of attention to recent clinical and laboratory data. The role of tumor dormancy and the dynamics of disease recurrence are presented here and a more general reflection on therapeutic approaches to cancer is proposed.
The problem of late recurrence in breast cancer has recently gained attention and was also addressed in an international workshop held in Toronto (ON, Canada), in which several aspects of the question were examined. This Commentary offers a few considerations, which may be useful for the ongoing investigations. A few premises are discussed: (a) clinical recurrences, especially the late ones, imply periods of tumor dormancy; (b) a structured pattern of distant metastases appearance is detectable in both early and late follow-up times; (c) the current general paradigm underlying neoplastic treatments, i.e., that killing all cancer cells is the only way to control the disease, which is strictly sprouting from the somatic mutation theory, should be re-considered. Finally, a few research approaches are suggested.
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Keywords:
recurrence dynamics; tumor dormancy; cancer paradigms
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MDPI and ACS Style
Demicheli, R.; Biganzoli, E. Late Recurrence in Breast Cancer: To Run after the Oxen or to Try to Close the Barn? Cancers 2021, 13, 2026. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13092026
AMA Style
Demicheli R, Biganzoli E. Late Recurrence in Breast Cancer: To Run after the Oxen or to Try to Close the Barn? Cancers. 2021; 13(9):2026. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13092026
Chicago/Turabian StyleDemicheli, Romano, and Elia Biganzoli. 2021. "Late Recurrence in Breast Cancer: To Run after the Oxen or to Try to Close the Barn?" Cancers 13, no. 9: 2026. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13092026
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