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Improvement of survival and prospect of cure in patients with metastatic breast cancer

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  • From improved survival to potential cure in patients with metastatic breast cancer
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Abstract

Patients with metastatic breast cancer have traditionally been considered incurable with conventional treatment. However, 5–10% of those patients survive more than 5 years, and 2–5% survive more than 10 years. Recent studies suggest that the survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer has been slowly improving. In this review, we examine the possible curative approach for a certain group of patients with metastatic breast cancer. We identify that patients most likely to benefit from such an aggressive approach are young and have good performance status, adequate body functional reserve, long disease-free interval before recurrence, oligometastatic disease, and low systemic tumor load. An aggressive multidisciplinary approach including both local treatment of macroscopic disease and systemic treatment of microscopic disease can result in prolonged disease control in certain patients with metastatic breast cancer. Whether patients with prolonged disease control are “cured” remains controversial.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health through MD Anderson Cancer Center Support Grant, CA016672, and by the Nellie B. Connally Breast Cancer Research Fund.

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  1. Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Yee Chung Cheng

  2. Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, Departments of Breast Medical Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 1354, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Naoto T. Ueno

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Cheng, Y.C., Ueno, N.T. Improvement of survival and prospect of cure in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Breast Cancer 19, 191–199 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-011-0276-3

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