[Role of surgery for metastatic breast cancer at diagnosis]

Abstract

Metastatic breast cancer is considered as incurable. Treatments of choice are systemic and palliative. Surgery of the primary tumor is usually indicated for palliation of local complications. However recently published studies seem to demonstrate that the surgical excision of the primary tumor increase survival, in particular for patients with negative surgical margins or with only bone metastases. As these studies have been adjusted for factors that may induce biais, only a prospective clinical randomized trial may confirm the role of surgery in the management of metastatic breast cancer.