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, Valério 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
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).