Clinical Features and Prognostic Factors in Patients with Carcinomatous Meningitis Secondary to Breast Cancer
The Breast Journal, 04/25/2012
Lara–Medina F et al. – These factors can identify a subgroup of patients who are candidates for an intensive management approach.
Methods- The purpose of this study was to describe a series of patients with breast cancer–associated CM to determine the clinical features and prognostic factors associated with survival.
- They conducted a retrospective study on 49 patients diagnosed between January 2003 and December 2007 at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología in Mexico City.
- CSF cytopathology samples were re–reviewed to confirm the diagnosis.
- Overall survival (OS) for patients with breast cancer with CM was 7 weeks.
- Factors independently associated with better OS included absence of encephalopathy at diagnosis (11 weeks versus 1 week; p = .036), low CSF protein content (15 versus 5 weeks; p = .022), and nontriple–negative receptor status in the primary breast cancer tumor (13 versus 3 weeks; p = .015).
- According to multivariate analysis, patients were divided into favorable and poor prognostic groups, with OS of 14 weeks and 2 weeks, respectively.
