Phyllodes tumor of the breast: a retrospective study of the impact of histopathological factors in local recurrence and distant metastasis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The challenging issue for the breast surgeons is local recurrence of phyllodes tumor. The histological criteria to predict local recurrence has been a controversial issue. The objective of this study was to determine pathological parameters and surgical margins that influence outcome of local recurrence and distant metastasis in phyllodes tumor (PT). DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective review between January 2003 to August 2008 at King Hussein Cancer Center-Jordan. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-two female patients diagnosed as having PT were classified to benign, borderline and malignant. The medical records were reviewed in relation to the surgical management, recurrence, follow-up, the histological features of the tumor and grading of tumours based on the following histological parameters: mitotic count, stromal cellularity, stromal overgrowth, cellular pleomorphism, nuclear grade, tumor necrosis, tumor margin, and surgical margin status. All patients underwent wide local excision of the tumor or mastectomy. RESULTS: Forty-two patients with PT (16 benign, 9 borderline, 17 malignant PT) were followed up for 30 months. The mean age was 39.8 years, and the average tumor size was 6.6 cm. The recurrence rate of PT in our study was 21% at a mean time of 11 months. Nine patients had local recurrence; 2 benign, 6 malignant and 1 borderline. Cellular pleomorphism had correlation with recurrence rate (P=.045). We had six patients (14%) with distant metastasis. All had malignant PT. Metastasis in PT has a relationship with histological grade (P=.02). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that patients with moderate and severe cellular pleomorphism had higher local recurrence, while metastatic PT occur more in patients with high nuclear grade.