Incurable Breast Cancer and Long-Term Survival: Anecdotes Toward a New Paradigm

Abstract

Metastatic breast cancer is thought never to be cured, although anecdotal cases of prolonged survival have been reported. A review of 1581 cases treated with combination chemotherapy at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston identified 49 complete responders (3.1%) who remained in complete response (CR) for more than 5 years (1). Another report, from the Eastern Comparative Oncology Group (ECOG), identified 10-year survival in 10% of 147 patients receiving chemotherapy in two trials for metastatic breast cancer (2). In the presence of metastasis, the potential for cure is not a recognized goal or even considered to be a possibility in breast cancer, although isolated instances of long-term survivors with and without disease may contribute to a different definition of cure.