Management of Occult Breast Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis Study

Abstract

reast cancer is the commonest primary neoplasm affecting females in Egypt, it is considered the third leading cause of cancer related deaths in Egypt, it has been established during past decades, that surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are corner stones in treatment of breast cancer. Occult breast cancer (OBC) is a rare entity of breast cancer which represents less than 1 % of the cases. In such cases, metastatic axillary carcinoma arise in the nonexistence of clinically identifiable breast tumor (T0N+ve) in addition no radiologically, or pathologically evidence of breast mass. In this meta-analysis, we systematically investigated the present therapeutic options in patients diagnosed with OBC, targeting a definition of the surgical approach associated with best surgical and recurrence outcomes. Ten studies were eligible for inclusion in our meta-analysis, all were published in the period from inception till 2020, revising all these data, nonetheless designing meta-analysis study to evaluate the overall result and to highpoint the different surgical approaches in management of occult breast cancer and to evaluate recurrence rate and prognosis. A Total of 837 patients were included in meta-analysis, with median age 54 years range from 44 to 59.3 years old with median follow up period 67.7 Months, compared to other meta-analysis conducted by Macedo et al., had seven studies included with total number of 241 patients eligible for analysis, median age were 55 years ranged between 50-59 years old.