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. 2018 Nov 20:10:5937-5950.
doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S178395. eCollection 2018.

Incidence and prognostic factors of patients with synchronous liver metastases upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer: a population-based study

Hai-Yun Zhao  1   2 , Yue Gong  1   2 , Fu-Gui Ye  1   2 , Hong Ling  1   2 , Xin Hu  1   2
Affiliations

Incidence and prognostic factors of patients with synchronous liver metastases upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer: a population-based study

Hai-Yun Zhao et al. Cancer Manag Res. .

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the incidence and prognostic factors of patients with breast cancer liver metastases (BCLM) at initial diagnosis.

Methods: We utilized the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to extract data on patients with primary invasive breast cancer from 2010 to 2014. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to determine factors associated with the presence of liver metastases upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify the prognostic factors in these patients.

Results: In total, 3,276 patients with liver metastases were identified upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer. Patients with hormone receptor-negative (HR-), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer had the highest incidence (4.6% among the entire population, 46.5% among the metastatic subgroup). Age, gender, race, pathological grade, extrahepatic metastases, tumor subtype, and marital status were identified as factors associated with the presence of liver metastases upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer. The median overall survival among the entire population with BCLM was 20.0 months. Patients with HR+/HER2+ breast cancer had the longest median survival of 36.0 months. The survival analyses indicated that older age, higher pathological grade, extrahepatic metastases, triple-negative subtype, unmarried status, and uninsured status were independent prognostic factors for a poorer prognosis.

Conclusion: The study provides insight into the incidence and prognostic factors for patients with BCLM at initial diagnosis, which is important clinical information for risk evaluation and prognostic assessment.

Keywords: breast cancer; breast cancer subtype; incidence; liver metastases; prognostic factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan–Meier curves for OS among patients with liver metastases upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer. Notes: (A) OS. (B) OS stratified by the breast cancer subtype. (C) OS stratified by the extent of extrahepatic metastatic diseases. Abbreviations: HER2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; HR, hormone receptor; + denotes positive; - denotes negative; OS: overall survival.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier curves for overall survival among patients with liver metastases according to individual metastases. Notes: (A) Patients with only liver metastases vs those with liver and other metastases. (B) Patients with bone metastases vs those without bone metastases. (C) Patients with lung metastases vs those without lung metastases. (D) Patients with brain metastases vs those without brain metastases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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