Breast cancer with intraabdominal metastases. Is surgery necessary?

Abstract

Metastatic breast cancer has a very poor prognosis, considering the lack of reliable curative medical or surgical approaches. Patients with stage IV breast cancer usually undergo palliative surgical procedures and symptomatic treatment. In a 5-year period, 1258 patients with breast cancer were treated in our surgical oncology unit. For the current study, we have selected 19 (1.43%) female patients with intraabdominal metastases (peritoneal, hepatic, ovarian etc.) derived from breast cancer, which received at least one surgical procedure in our unit. We compared our data with up-to-date reports and guidelines in order to establish the role and further directions of surgery, and (most importantly) the necessity of surgery itself in the management of this therapeutically disadvantaged patient-group. Even if current guidelines do not recommend surgical treatment of intraabdominal metastases derived from breast cancer, several oncology centers (including our unit) did not discard surgery, especially in patients with solitary metastasis.