Mastectomy & Radiation with Stage 4 Diagnosis

[Kat77]

Thanks for your responses! The study in India my husband and doctors discounted because those women did not have access to herceptin. The study that is worrisome is the one where the fellow took the primary tumor from mice and reported that it made mets more likely to appear distantly. But thats mice not people.

My gut tells me to do it so I don't look back and regret not doing it.

The 2nd opinion I do need to get, excellent advice and source.

Kat

[Jackie07]

Here's the abstract of a new report:

Gynecol Obstet Fertil. 2015 Mar 26. pii: S1297-9589(15)00056-9. doi: 10.1016/j.gyobfe.2015.02.017. [Epub ahead of print]
[Locoregional surgery for stage IV breast cancer patients].
[Article in French]
Lotersztajn N1, Héquet D2, Mosbah R1, Rouzier R1.
Author information
Abstract
Three to 6% of women newly diagnosed with breast cancers have stage IV disease. Overall survival was improved during the last few years (16-45months). The treatment of stage IV breast cancer has traditionally been palliative with surgical resection reserved for symptomatic wound complications. Since 2000, several retrospective studies have compared surgery versus no local therapy in women presenting with stage IV breast cancer with an intact primary tumor. All showed a survival advantage for the surgical cohort. However, these studies are limited by the fact that it is not possible to control for biases that led to surgical resection of the primary tumor. Several prospective randomized trials have been undertaken. We have partial results for two of them and they show no survival differences between patients who benefit from local surgery and patients who did not have surgery. However, breast surgery is at low risk of complication, if not considering psychological aspect of mastectomy, and can be proposed to patients with no progression after first chemotherapy. Conservative management can be an option, but surgery must be optimal with negative margins. No benefit of axillary surgery has been shown but this treatment can lead to complications and impact quality of life of patients. Therefore, axillary node resection is not recommended for stage IV breast cancer. Finally, radiotherapy can be an alternative option of local therapy associated or no to surgery in stage IV breast cancer.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.