Oncology Medical News about survival in patients with breast cancer;metastatic to the brain;systemic treatment

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Have changes in systemic treatment improved survival in patients with breast cancer metastatic to the brain?
Journal of Oncology, 06/11/09

Nieder C et al. - In a trial to examine the hypothesis that newly developed systemic treatment regimens might lead to improved survival in the subgroup of breast cancer pts that harbour brain metastases, it was reported that study results are compatible with the hypothesis.

Methods

A matched pairs analysis was performed that involved 1 group of pts that were treated after these new drugs were introduced, and 1 group of pts that were treated approximately 10 yrs earlier.
The 2 groups were well balanced for the known prognostic factors age, KPS, extracranial disease status, and recursive partitioning analysis class, as well as for extent of brain treatment.

Results

The use of systemic chemotherapy has increased over time, both before and after diagnosis of brain metastases.
Such treatment was performed nearly exclusively in those pts with brain metastases that belonged to the prognostically more favourable groups.
Survival after whole-brain radiotherapy has remained unchanged in pts without further active treatment.
It has improved in prognostically better pts and especially pts that received active treatment, where the 1-yr survival rates have almost doubled.
As these pt groups were small, confirmation of results in other series should be attempted.

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