Immediate breast reconstruction with latissimus dorsi flap for patients with local recurrence of breast cancer.

Background: Ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence (IBTR) occurs in about 7% of patients with primary invasive breast tumor. Salvage mastectomy and breast reconstruction are often discussed and latissimus dorsi (LD) flap is frequently proposed.

Methods: We retrospectively investigated 111 consecutive locally relapsing patients who underwent salvage mastectomy and immediate LD reconstruction. All included patients with IBTR previously underwent conserving surgery for BC, and received a postoperative irradiation. Primary endpoints were disease free survival and overall survival. Secondary endpoints were surgical complications and re-interventions.

Results: Invasive ductal cancer was the most frequent histotype (60.4%) of breast cancer reappearance. rpT1, rpT2 and rpT3 were observed respectively in 50.5%, 20,7% and 3,6% of the patients. rpTis occurred in 11,7% of cases. Positive axillary nodes were observed in 9,9% of patients at reappearance. Post-operative complication other than seroma occurred in 17,1% of patients, while seroma at the donor site was observed in 61.3% of cases. At 5-year after surgery overall survival was 92% (95% CI: 85%-96%) and disease free survival was 78% (95% CI: 69%-85%).

Conclusions: Immediate latissimus dorsi flap reconstruction in selected patients with isolated breast tumor recurrence, which occurred after breast irradiation, provides an effective treatment with a satisfactory outcome.