Locoregional chemotherapy in the treatment of liver metastasis of breast carcinoma]

Locoregional chemotherapy enables specific treatment of organ metastases by using a dosage of medication that is maximally effective but only has minimal side effects on other organs. Since 1983, we have applied this procedure in patients whose liver represented the only target-organ of metastases. Between 1983 and 1990, locoregional chemotherapy was performed in 59 women suffering from liver metastases of breast cancer. The average age of our patients was 52 years. 4 patients were treated for solitary metastases that could not be resected, in 5 patients the infiltration of hepatic parenchyma with metastases accounted to 25%, in 32 patients hepatic infiltration ranged between 25% and 75% and in 18 patients it surpassed 75%. In 39% of our patients, a partial remission occurred. The mean period of survival after beginning of treatment was 149 days, whereas the longest survival time lasted 1009 days. We conclude that the locoregional chemotherapy, destined for treatment of liver-metastases of breast cancer, with a mean survival time of only five months could insufficiently satisfy our expectations. Therefore, a decision to administer such palliative therapy should be made on an individual basis. In our opinion, one indication represents solitary metastases that are not resectable, a further indication is pain due to expansion of the liver capsule because of diffuse metastases.