Analysis of clinical features and prognosis of breast cancer with uncommon metastases

Objective: To analyze the clinical pathological characteristics and prognosis of breast cancer patients with uncommon metastases. Methods: Clinical data of 68 cases of breast cancer with uncommon metastases from 2012 to 2015 was retrospectively analyzed. The definition of uncommon sites of metastases is the metastatic sites except for lymph node, chest wall, breast, bone, liver, lung, brain and peritoneal and pleural metastases. Results: Among the 68 patients, the uncommon metastatic sites included adrenal gland, ovary, pancreas, eyes, uterus, spleen, rectum, bladder, kidney, thyroid gland and parotid gland. The top three common metastatic sites were adrenal gland (44.1%, 30/68), ovary (41.2%, 28/68) and pancreas (11.8%, 8/68); 75.0% (51/68) of the patients had other common metastases. The median survival time after uncommon metastases was 23.5 months (range: 1.4-116.0 months). The univariate analysis showed that the patients without metastases outside the special sites had a better survival than those with common metastases (median survival time were 36.0 and 18.0 months, respectively; P = 0.007). Conclusion: Breast cancer metastasis is widespread, in addition to the common sites, the cancer can be transferred to many other sites. Patients with uncommon metastases from breast cancer may have a favorable prognosis if they do not accompany with other common metastases, and local treatment may improve the survival of some selected patients. Many ovarian metastases are found after the operation, and the possibility of ovarian metastasis should be considered in the selection of the method of ovarian ablation. DOI:10.3781/j.issn.1000-7431.2017.33.696