Behcet's Disease and Breast Cancer: A Case Series Study

Abstract

Introduction: The relation between Behcet's disease (BD) and breast cancer (BC) is unclear. Our purpose is to investigate whether BD has an important effect on BC or vice versa. Patients and Methods: A total of 12 female BC patients with a diagnosis of BD were identified from a cohort including 5050 BC patients. The demographic data of the selected patients including previous chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy (RT), hormonal therapy (HT), drugs used for BD, history of thrombotic events, and overall survival were examined. Results: The rate of BD in the entire cohort was found to be 0.25% (12/4800), and all had early BC at the time of BC diagnosis, with a median age of 47 years (range: 38-51). All patients underwent curative surgery for BC. In the adjuvant setting, CT, RT, and HT were administered in 11 (91%), 10 (83.4%), and 9 (75%) patients, respectively. All patients received acetylsalicylic acid and colchicine for BD. No serious adverse event associated with BC and/or BD was observed. Clinical symptoms in 11 patients with BD were observed to be improved following the BC treatment. Only one patient developed disease progression and then expired. Conclusion: Unlike the natural behavior of BD, which is well-defined to have an increased risk of thrombosis, BC patients with BD in this study did not have any adverse event. However, due to small sample size, it is difficult to drive any definite conclusion regarding the relation between these two pathologies.