Breast phyllodes tumor: a review of literature and a single center retrospective series analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Complete surgical resection is the standard treatment for localized breast phyllodes tumors. Post-surgical treatments are still a matter of debate. We carried out an overview of the literature to investigate the clinical outcome of patients with phyllodes tumor. A retrospective analysis of mono-institutional series has been included as well.

Methods: We reviewed all the retrospective series reported from 1951 until April 2012. We analyzed cases treated at our institution from 1999 to 2010.

Results: Eighty-three articles (5530 patients; 1956 malignant tumors) were reviewed. Local recurrences were independent of histology. Distant recurrences were more frequent in the malignant tumors (22%). A total of 172 phyllodes tumors were included in the retrospective analysis.

Discussion: Prognosis of phyllodes tumors is excellent. There are no convincing data to recommend any adjuvant treatment after surgery. Molecular characterization may well provide new clues to permit identification of active treatments for the rare poor prognosis cases.

Keywords: Breast tumors; Literature overview; Phyllodes tumor; Prognosis; Retrospective analysis.