title: Efficacy of pleurodesis for malignant pleural effusions in breast cancer patients.
abstract: This study retrospectively compared long-term outcomes between two groups of breast cancer patients with malignant pleural effusion (MPE): those receiving only systemic therapy (ST) and those receiving ST following initial pleurodesis (P-ST). We identified 180 breast cancer patients from the National Cancer Center Hospital (Tokyo, Japan) database who had received ST and P-ST as an initial treatment for MPE between 1997 and 2008 for study inclusion. Pleural progression-free survival (PPFS) was defined as the time from ST in the ST group and from pleurodesis in the P-ST group to the first observation of pleural progression or death from any cause. Of the 180 patients, 78 received ST and 102 received P-ST after MPE diagnosis. Median duration of follow-up was 12.7 months (range 0.9-80.1 months). Median PPFS for the ST group and the P-ST group was 4.1 and 8.5 months, respectively. The difference in PPFS between the two groups was statistically significant (p < 0.001) and the hazard ratio after adjusting for prognostic factors in the P-ST group relative to the ST group was 0.24. Our results suggest that the efficacy of P-ST may be superior to that of ST alone with respect to local control of pleural effusions in breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Breast and Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yonemori
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirakawa
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ando
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Katsumata
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016066:Pleural Effusion, Malignant / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D018700:Pleurodesis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents