Management of Occult Breast Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis Study

Abstract Background: Breast 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. Aim of Study: Is to locate relevant studies comparing different lines of management most commonly used in treat-ment of occult breast cancer that are published till now, revising all these studies, and designing a meta-analysis study to assess the overall result and to highlight the different lines of management of occult breast cancer and to assess recurrence rate and prognosis. Material and Methods: In this meta-analysis, we system-atically investigated the present therapeutic options in patients diagnosed with OBC, targeting a definition of the surgical approach associated with best surgical and recurrence out-comes. 10 studies were eligible for inclusion in our meta-analysis, all were published in the period from inception till 2020, revising all these data, none the less 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: There was no statistically difference between BCS + ALND and Mastectomy + ALND surgical approaches in terms of recurrence including loco regional and distant also there was difference in survival (OS and DFS) between BCS + ALND and Mastectomy + ALND surgical approaches.