Men With Stage IV Breast Cancer Benefit from Trimodal Therapy

Men with stage IV breast cancer and known estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status benefit from surgical intervention and trimodal therapy, according to new study results.

“We need to re-examine the notion that stage IV breast cancer in men is so dire that there is no survival benefit to surgical intervention,” Daleela G. Dodge, MD, FACS, a general surgeon at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, said in a statement. “For this subgroup of patients who are responsive to systemic therapy and do not have a lot of metastatic burden, we’d like there to be a reconsideration of best practices.”

There is a survival advantage for individuals who received trimodal therapy of radiation and systemic therapy, as well as surgery, compared with those who just received systemic therapy, the study results show.

Individuals with ER or PR status who received trimodal therapy or systemic therapy and surgery had an improved 5-year overall survival rate compared with just systemic therapy.

Investigators identified 539 men with stage IV breast cancer with known ER/PR status from 2004 to 2017 and examined subgroup differences between the treatment modalities received.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends that men with stage IV breast cancer be treated with systemic therapy and surgery to minimize symptoms, such as bleeding, pain, or ulcerations.

The study results were presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2021.

Reference

Surgery has survival benefits for male stage IV breast cancer patients who are receptive to systemic therapy. EurekAlert. News release. October 23, 2021. Accessed on October 25, 2021. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/932396