npj Breast Cancer (Dec 2020)

Association between the histopathological growth patterns of liver metastases and survival after hepatic surgery in breast cancer patients

  • Ali Bohlok,
  • Peter Vermeulen,
  • Sophia Leduc,
  • Emily Latacz,
  • Lara Botzenhart,
  • François Richard,
  • Maxim De Schepper,
  • Tatjana Geukens,
  • Valerio Lucidi,
  • Michail Ignatiadis,
  • Philippe Aftimos,
  • Christos Sotiriou,
  • Martine Piccart,
  • Alain Hendlisz,
  • Steven Van Laere,
  • Luc Dirix,
  • Jean-Christophe Noël,
  • Elia Biganzoli,
  • Denis Larsimont,
  • Christine Desmedt,
  • Vincent Donckier

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41523-020-00209-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 1 – 5

Abstract

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Abstract Currently, there are no markers to identify patients with liver-only or liver-dominant metastases that would benefit from hepatic surgery. Here we characterized histopathological growth patterns (HGPs) of liver metastases in a consecutive series of 36 breast cancer patients who underwent hepatic surgery. Survival analyses showed that the presence of a desmoplastic HGP in the liver metastases (a rim of fibrous tissue separating cancer cells from the liver parenchyma, present in 20 (56%) patients) is independently associated with favorable progression-free and overall survival when compared with the replacement HGP (cancer cells growing into the liver parenchyma, present in 16 (44%) patients).