Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Nov 24, 2023; 14(11): 445-458
Published online Nov 24, 2023. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v14.i11.445
Analysis of clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of breast cancer brain metastasis
Yu-Rui Chen, Zu-Xin Xu, Li-Xin Jiang, Zhi-Wei Dong, Peng-Fei Yu, Zhi Zhang, Guo-Li Gu
Yu-Rui Chen, Li-Xin Jiang, Department of General Surgery, Air Force Clinical College, China Medical University, Beijing 100142, China
Zu-Xin Xu, Guo-Li Gu, Department of General Surgery, Fifth Clinical College (Air Force Clinical College) of Anhui Medical University, Beijing 100142, China
Zhi-Wei Dong, Peng-Fei Yu, Zhi Zhang, Guo-Li Gu, Department of General Surgery, Air Force Medical Center, Air Force Clinical College of China Medical University, Beijing 100142, China
Co-first authors: Yu-Rui Chen and Zu-Xin Xu.
Author contributions: Chen YR and Xu ZX contributed equally to this study, and share joint first authorship; Gu GL designed the research; Chen YR and Xu ZX conceived the study, developed the methodology, collected data, analyzed and interpreted data, and wrote the manuscript; Jiang LX, Zhang Z, Yu PF and Dong ZW collected and analyzed the clinical data; Gu GL and Dong ZW provided the material support, and revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by Outstanding Young Talents Program of Air Force Medical Center, PLA, No. 22BJQN004; Clinical Program of Air Force Medical University, No. Xiaoke2022-07.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Air Force Medical Center, Chinese People's Liberation Army (Beijing, China).
Informed consent statement: Consent was obtained from patients or their relatives for publication of this report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author kzggl@163.com.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guo-Li Gu, Doctor, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of General Surgery, Air Force Medical Center, Air Force Clinical College of China Medical University, No. 30 Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100142, China. kzggl@163.com
Received: September 7, 2023
Peer-review started: September 7, 2023
First decision: September 20, 2023
Revised: September 29, 2023
Accepted: October 16, 2023
Article in press: October 16, 2023
Published online: November 24, 2023
Processing time: 76 Days and 1 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Breast cancer (BC) brain metastasis (BCBM) is an important influencing factor of the long-term prognosis of BC patients. Triple-negative type is a known risk factor of BCBM, suggesting that patients with different clinicopathological types have differences in survival time.

Research motivation

To explore the influencing factors of the occurrence, development, and prognostic survival of BCBM to provide references for the diagnosis, treatment and management of patients with BM.

Research objectives

To perform more aggressive screening of high-risk patients of BCBM, benefiting patients from early diagnosis and treatment, and producing better outcomes.

Research methods

Clinicopathological data of 68 BCBM patients admitted to the Air Force Medical Center (formerly Air Force General Hospital) between 2000 and 2022 and another 136 matched BC patients were retrospectively analyzed. The high-risk factors and prognostic factors of BCBM patients were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, the survival time of patients was estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method, and the overall survival was compared between two groups by log-rank test.

Research results

Stage III/IV, lung metastasis, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-overexpressing and triple-negative types were high-risk factors of BCBM. Patients with neurological symptoms, bone metastasis, and HER2-overexpressing and triple-negative BC had poor prognosis, requiring more effective treatment to improve the survival rate of these patients.

Research conclusions

The prognosis of BCBM is poor. Active follow-up and screening of the brain should be performed for patients with late stage at initial treatment, lung metastasis, and HER2-overexpressing and triple-negative BC. The median survival time of patients with neurological symptoms, bone metastasis, and HER2-overexpressing and triple-negative BC significantly decreases.

Research perspectives

More multicenter large studies on BCBM are required to provide references for the management of high-risk patients, and more effective treatment is needed to raise the survival rate of patients with poor prognosis.