Long-term survival with metastatic breast cancer (MBC): Results of a retrospective, single-centre analysis from 2000-2005

1128 Background: Recent epidemiological studies suggest that chemotherapy has not contributed to a marked improvement of patient outcome during the last decades. In most randomized trials who investigated the efficacy of a 1st-line schedule for MBC the median survival ranged between 18 and 24 months. The goal of the present analysis was to analyse the survival of patients with MBC treated in a single university outpatient clinic. Methods: Patients who had received their complete anti-cancer treatment for MBC in our outpatient clinic between 2000 and 2005 were analyzed for treatment and survival. Results: 232 patients [median age 53, range 25–84 yrs; ER and/or PgR positive (HR+) n=181 (78%); HER2 over-expression (HER2+) n=79 (34%)] were included into the analysis. Following antihormone treatment in HR+ patients (median 2 regimens), patients received up to 3 chemotherapies in palliative intent (41.1%), 4–6 regimens were applied in 22.0% and 12.5% received more than 6 subsequent regimens during the course of...