Disease-free Survival After Resection Of Lung Metastases In Patients With Breast Cancer.

AIMS Metastatic breast cancer is a systemic disease. The discussion concerning the resection of lung metastases in patients with breast cancer is controversial. METHODS Retrospective analysis of 25 patients with suspected pulmonary metastases operated between March 1989 and September 1998. Survival probabilities and disease-free survival was analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. RESULTS The median survival rate after resection of lung metastases for the 21 patients was 96.9 months. The disease-free survival (DFS) after resection of lung metastases was 27.6 months. Survival was not influenced by the receptor status, lymph node involvement, number of lung metastases (p=0.8) or the disease-free interval (DFI) (0.59). DFS was, however, influenced by the DFI. With a DFI of <2 years survival was 8.5 months, whereas with a DFI >2 years it was 36.1 months (p=0.012). The DFS was influenced, but not statistically significant, by the number of lung metastases (n=1/n>1). The median DFS was 28.8 months with one metastasis and 13.1 months with multiple metastases (p=0.29). CONCLUSIONS The indication to remove solitary lung metastases in patients with previous breast cancer is supported by these findings. Especially when the disease-free interval is greater than two years.