Abstract
Background: Brain metastases (BMs) have a major impact on life expectancy and quality of life for many breast cancer patients. Knowledge about treatment patterns and outcomes is limited. Methods: We analysed clinical data of 1712 patients diagnosed with BMs from breast cancer between January 2000 and December 2016 at 80 institutions. Results: Median age at diagnosis of BMs was 56 years (22-90 years). About 47.8% (n = 732) of patients had HER2-positive, 21.4% (n = 328) had triple-negative and 30.8% (n = 471) had hormone receptor (HR) epositive, HER2-negative (luminal-like) primary tumours. The proportion of patients with HER2-positive BMs decreased comparing the years 2000-2009 with 2010-2015 (51%-44%), whereas the percentage of patients with luminal-like tumours increased (28%-34%;p = 0.0331). Patients with BMs in the posterior fossa were more often HER2 positive (n = 169/314, 53.8%) than those diagnosed with triple-negative (n = 65/314, 20.7%) or luminal-like primary breast cancer (n = 80/314, 25.5%), (p < 0.0001). Median overall survival (OS) time after development of BMs for the overall cohort was 7.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.7-8.0 months). One-year survival rate was 37.7% (95% CI: 35.2 e40.1). Patients with HER2-positive tumours had the longest median OS of 11.6 months (95% CI: 10.0-13.4) compared with 5.9 months (95% CI: 5.0-7.2) for patients with luminal-like and 4.6 months (95% CI: 3.9-5.4) for patients with triple-negative tumours. Patients with HER2-positive tumours who received anti-HER2 treatment had longer median OS than those without (17.1 months versus 7.2 months, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Prognosis of patients after developing BMs varies significantly according to the subtype. The outcome in this cohort is similarly poor in triple-negative and HR-positive/ HER2-negative patients. Our results underline the high medical need for improvement of treatment and prevention strategies for BMs in breast cancer patients.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Faculties: | Medicine |
Subjects: | 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health |
ISSN: | 0959-8049 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 64289 |
Date Deposited: | 19. Jul 2019, 12:14 |
Last Modified: | 04. Nov 2020, 13:43 |