Follow-up care of patients with breast cancer.

In the US, over 200,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed each year, with an additional 60,000 cases of ductal carcinoma in situ. The majority of these women will never experience a recurrence of their disease, and most will survive more than 5 years. Follow-up care for these women is focused on addressing long-term complications of therapy, and early detection of new primary cancers and locoregional recurrences. There is no evidence that early detection of distant metastases will lead to an increase in survival, and currently routine imaging studies are not recommended. With the growing number of breast cancer survivors, further studies should be undertaken to study the cost-effectiveness of surveillance strategies.