Overall survival in metastatic breast cancer patients: a single-centre analysis (2000-2005)

Background: Recent epidemiological studies suggest that
chemotherapy has not contributed to a marked improvement of patient
outcome during the last decades. In most randomized trials which
investigated the efficacy of a 1st-line schedule for metastatic
breast cancer (MBC), the median survival ranged between 18 and 24
months. The goal of the present study was to analyse the survival
of patients with MBC treated in a single university outpatient
clinic. Methods: Patients who had received their complete
anti-cancer treatment for MBC in our outpatient clinic between 2000
and 2005 were analyzed for treatment and survival. Results: 232
patients [median age of 53, range 27-87 yrs; ER and/or PgR positive
(HR+) n=174 (75%); HER2 over-expression (HER2+) n=79 (34%)] were
included in the analysis. Endocrine sensitive patients received 1-2
(58.6%), 3-4 (37.4%) and 5-6 (2.3%) hormonal regimens. Of all
patients 53.4% received up to 3 cytostatic agents in palliative
intent, 4-6 regimens were applied in 22.1% and 12.9% received more
than 6 subsequent regimens during the course of their disease. The
median overall survival (OS) from time of diagnosis of metastatic
disease was 44 months. Patients with HR positive tumours survived
46 months, whereas the survival of those with HR negative tumours
was 34 months (p=0.07). HER2+ patients who received trastuzumab
survived for a median of 44 months. Visceral involvement was
associated with a shorter survival as compared to non-visceral
disease (34 vs. 57 months, p