Operating on patients with metastatic breast cancer to reduce their total tumour burden improves overall survival, reports a Pakistani abstract at the International Breast Cancer Conference (St Gallen, Switzerland, 16-19 March).

Lubna Vohra and colleagues, from Aga Khan University Hospital (Karachi, Pakistan), undertook a retrospective review of data that had been prospectively collected on 205 patients with metastatic breast cancer who had been treated at their centre between 1987 and 2010. Information collected included age, menopausal status, tumour characteristics, site of metastasis, site of surgery, margin status, use of radiation, chemo endocrine therapy, disease progression in the first year and survival.

Altogether 62% of patients (127), who had a mean age of 50.64 years, underwent surgical incisions for their primary tumour; while 38% (78), who had a mean age of 51.55 years, had no surgery. Results showed that patients who underwent surgery had an overall survival of 49 months compared to an overall survival of 32 months for non operated patients.

"Total tumour burden is a major predictor of treatment outcome and breast can be regarded as another "metastatic site" that can be easily eliminated with surgical resection," conclude the authors, adding that a prospective randomised clinical trial is now needed to validate these findings.

Reference

L Vohra, S Khan, N Khan Does primary tumour excision affect survival in metastatic breast cancer? Abstract number P318.