Is cure possible for breast cancer metastatic to the liver?

1099 Background: Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is a lethal disease and is generally only amenable to systemic treatment. Although increasingly recommended on selected patients, local treatments, and particularly surgery, are seldom used in the therapeutic armamentarium for MBC and their long-term survival benefit is unknown. We hypothesized that combining surgery to systemic treatment for selected patients with breast cancer liver metastases could lead to long-term survival or even an option of cure. Methods: A retrospective study of prospectively gathered data from a surgical series of liver resections for MBC was conducted. Patients with no or limited and stable extra-hepatic disease were offered surgery after multidisciplinary discussion, if the liver metastases were responding to systemic treatment and were amenable to complete macroscopic resection. Five- and ten-year actual survivors were identified and their characteristics were explored. Results: From 1984 to 2020, 207 female patients underwent liver resections for MBC in our institution. There was no postoperative mortality. Postoperative complication rate was 23.3% and liver-specific complication rate was 19.0%. There was a total of 48 repeat hepatectomies. Median disease-free interval between initial breast cancer and liver metastasis was 36 ± 90.1 months. There was a median of 2 ± 1.8 liver metastases at diagnosis with a median size of 33.0 ± 18.3 mm and 73.1% of patients had radiological response before resection. Five- and ten-year overall survivals (OS) as well as 5- and 10-year disease-free survivals (DFS) were 39.6% and 12.7% as well as 14.2% and 6.4%, respectively. Median OS was 44.0 ± 47.2 months in the whole series. Focusing on the 5- and 10-year survivors, median OS were 89.5 ± 44.7 months and 144.0 ±42.6 months, respectively. In the 10-year survivors’ group, median DFS was 98 ±62.3 months. Observed survivals in this study underestimate true actual survivals owing to censoring of patients lost to follow-up. Conclusions: Long-term survival (≥ 5 years) as well as a curative perspective (≥ 10 years survival) are achievable for selected patients with breast cancer liver metastases by combining surgery to systemic treatment. Considering the recent improvements in the results of systemic treatments, introducing surgical resection in the treatment sequences of MBC could play an even more beneficial role.