Chemotherapy for breast cancer progresses to liver metastases after surgery and systemic treatment

Background This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy/portal vein infusion chemotherapy (HAIC/PVIC), transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) for unresectable breast cancer liver metastases (UBCLM). Methods The present study included 57 patients. These patients were randomly divided into three groups (n=19, each): HAIC/PVIC group, TACE group and TAE group. Patients in the HAIC/PVIC group were treated with the same systemic chemotherapy regimen previously received by infusion through an intra-arterial and portal vein catheter. Patients in the TACE group received cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and 5-fluorouracil, and embolization. Patients in the TAE group were only treated with embolization. Results The median number of treatments was 6 (range, 3–13) in the HAIC/PVIC group, 5 (range, 4–9) in the TACE group, and 6 (range, 4–8) in the TAE group. The 1-, 2- and 3-year survival rates for these groups were 18/19 (94.7%), 14/19 (73.7%) and 11/19 (57.9%), 14/19 (73.7%), 9/19 (47.4%) and 8/19 (42.1%), and 8/19 (42.1%), 4/19 (21.1%) and 0/19 (0%), respectively. The median overall survival from the original breast cancer diagnosis was 88 (range, 11–133), 75 (range, 9–115), and 49 (range, 10–64) months in the HAIC/PVIC, TACE and TAE groups, respectively. Grade I–II and grade III–IV bone marrow suppression was observed in 12/19 (63.2%) and 3/19 (15.8%) patients in the HAIC/PVIC group, respectively, in 17/19 (89.5%) and 5/19 (26.3%) patients in the TACE group, respectively, and in 0/19 (0%) and 0/19 (0%) patients in the TAE group, respectively. Conclusions HAIC/PVIC with the same regional chemotherapy regimen of the original systemic treatment is feasible, and can benefit patients with UBCLM, who have progressed on prior systemic therapies.