Prognostic factors of breast cancer liver metastasis surgery

The current survival of patients with breast cancer liver metasta-ses (BCLM) after systemic oncological treatment is between 22 to 27 months [1, 2]. The proper indication for surgical treatment of BCLM is still a matter of discussion [3, 4]. We evaluated the risk factors of surgical treatment of BCLM in 21 women with an average age of 50.9 ±8.9 years. The interval between the breast and the liver surgery was 4.0 ±2.8 years. Local recurrence was observed in 6 (28.6%) patients. The primary tumour was a ductal carcinoma in 12 (57.1%) cases, a lobular carcino-ma in 6 (28.6%) cases and another type in 3 (14.3%) cases. The primary tumour was oestrogen receptor positive in 14 (66.7%) cases, and progesterone receptor positive in 10 (47.6%) cases. Both receptor types were positive in 15 (71.4%) and both were negative in 2 (9.5%) patients. Fourteen patients had a solitary BCLM, and 7 patients had more metas-tases. The average sum of BCLM diameters was 5.2 ±3.8 cm. Extra-he-patic metastases were present in 6 (28.6%) patients. We performed 11 (52.4%) liver resections and 10 (47.6%) radiofrequency ablations (RFA). In 3 patients, a lymphadenectomy of the hepato-duodenal ligament , because of the presence of positive lymph nodes, was performed. We studied the effects of patients' age, time interval between the breast cancer and BCLM surgery, the type of surgical procedure, histopatholog-ical findings of the primary tumour, the number and overall diameter of BCLM, the presence of resectable extra-hepatic metastases, and local tumour recurrence after primary breast cancer surgery on patients' overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The 1-, 3-and 5-year OS for patients treated with resection or RFA The other studied factors did not have any impact on OS or PFS (Table I).