Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis: Current and Future Treatment Approaches

Overview

Journal Clin Exp Metastasis

Specialty Oncology

Date 2021 Mar 6

PMID 33675501

Citations 37

Authors

Narmeen S Rashid

Jacqueline M Grible

Charles V Clevenger

J Chuck Harrell

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Nearly all fatalities arising from breast tumors are attributable to distant metastases. Breast cancer liver metastasis (BCLM) is associated with poor prognoses, with the median survival time being 2 to 3 years. Tumor intrinsic subtype directs preferential metastasis to specific organs, with HER2-enriched tumors demonstrating the highest rates of metastasis to the liver, though all subtypes can grow in the liver. There is no singular established standard-of-care for BCLM; therapeutic selection is driven by histologic and molecular hallmarks of the primary tumor or biopsied metastasis samples. Given the poor prognosis of patients with hepatic spread, pre-clinical studies are necessary to identify and evaluate promising new treatment strategies. It is critical that these laboratory studies accurately recapitulate the BCLM disease process, standard progression, and histological attributes. In this review, we summarize the histologic and molecular characteristics of BCLM, evaluate the efficacy of existing surgical and medical treatment strategies, and discuss future approaches to preclinical study of BCLM.

Citing Articles

A review of six bioactive compounds from preclinical studies as potential breast cancer inhibitors.

Rampogu S, Al-Antari M, Oh T, Shaik B Mol Biol Rep. 2025; 52(1):203.

PMID: 39907697 DOI: 10.1007/s11033-025-10300-0.

Liver resection for breast cancer-related liver metastases: a case report.

Pangarsa E, Prabowo E, Subiyakto , Yudisaputro W, Istiadi H, Hadiyanto J J Med Case Rep. 2024; 18(1):635.

PMID: 39710686 PMC: 11665236. DOI: 10.1186/s13256-024-05001-4.

The Objective Response and Disease Control Rates in Patients with Liver Metastastic Breast Cancer Receiving Transarterial Radioembolization: A Meta-Analysis.

Quartuccio N, Militano V, Pappalardo M, Filippi L, Bagni O, Moreci A Curr Oncol. 2024; 31(11):6879-6890.

PMID: 39590139 PMC: 11592458. DOI: 10.3390/curroncol31110508.

Normal tissue transcriptional signatures for tumor-type-agnostic phenotype prediction.

Weistuch C, Murgas K, Zhu J, Norton L, Dill K, Tannenbaum A Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):27230.

PMID: 39516498 PMC: 11549333. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-76625-1.

Tumor-on-chip platforms for breast cancer continuum concept modeling.

Neagu A, Whitham D, Bruno P, Versaci N, Biggers P, Darie C Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2024; 12:1436393.

PMID: 39416279 PMC: 11480020. DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1436393.

References

Van Dam P, van der Stok E, Teuwen L, Van den Eynden G, Illemann M, Frentzas S . International consensus guidelines for scoring the histopathological growth patterns of liver metastasis. Br J Cancer. 2017; 117(10):1427-1441. PMC: 5680474. DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.334. View

Ekpe E, Shaikh A, Shah J, Jacobson J, Sayed S . Metastatic Breast Cancer in Kenya: Presentation, Pathologic Characteristics, and Patterns-Findings From a Tertiary Cancer Center. J Glob Oncol. 2019; 5:1-11. PMC: 6690618. DOI: 10.1200/JGO.19.00036. View

Robson M, Tung N, Conte P, Im S, Senkus E, Xu B . OlympiAD final overall survival and tolerability results: Olaparib versus chemotherapy treatment of physician's choice in patients with a germline BRCA mutation and HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. Ann Oncol. 2019; 30(4):558-566. PMC: 6503629. DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdz012. View

Kumar G, Goldberg S, Gourevitch S, Levchenko T, Torchilin V, Galun E . Targeting STAT3 to Suppress Systemic Pro-Oncogenic Effects from Hepatic Radiofrequency Ablation. Radiology. 2017; 286(2):524-536. PMC: 5790305. DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2017162943. View

Zhao H, Gong Y, Ye F, Ling H, Hu X . Incidence and prognostic factors of patients with synchronous liver metastases upon initial diagnosis of breast cancer: a population-based study. Cancer Manag Res. 2018; 10:5937-5950. PMC: 6255056. DOI: 10.2147/CMAR.S178395. View

Robertson J, Lindemann J, Llombart-Cussac A, Rolski J, Feltl D, Dewar J . Fulvestrant 500 mg versus anastrozole 1 mg for the first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer: follow-up analysis from the randomized 'FIRST' study. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012; 136(2):503-11. DOI: 10.1007/s10549-012-2192-4. View

Robertson J, Bondarenko I, Trishkina E, Dvorkin M, Panasci L, Manikhas A . Fulvestrant 500 mg versus anastrozole 1 mg for hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer (FALCON): an international, randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2016; 388(10063):2997-3005. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32389-3. View

Brown K, Xue A, Julovi S, Gill A, Pavlakis N, Samra J . Using patient-derived xenograft models of colorectal liver metastases to predict chemosensitivity. J Surg Res. 2018; 227:158-167. DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2018.02.018. View

Zhang X, Claerhout S, Prat A, Dobrolecki L, Petrovic I, Lai Q . A renewable tissue resource of phenotypically stable, biologically and ethnically diverse, patient-derived human breast cancer xenograft models. Cancer Res. 2013; 73(15):4885-97. PMC: 3732575. DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-4081. View

10.

Andre F, Ciruelos E, Rubovszky G, Campone M, Loibl S, Rugo H . Alpelisib for -Mutated, Hormone Receptor-Positive Advanced Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2019; 380(20):1929-1940. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1813904. View

11.

Cummings M, Simpson P, Reid L, Jayanthan J, Skerman J, Song S . Metastatic progression of breast cancer: insights from 50 years of autopsies. J Pathol. 2013; 232(1):23-31. PMC: 4288974. DOI: 10.1002/path.4288. View

12.

OBrien N, McDermott M, Conklin D, Luo T, Ayala R, Salgar S . Targeting activated PI3K/mTOR signaling overcomes acquired resistance to CDK4/6-based therapies in preclinical models of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. 2020; 22(1):89. PMC: 7427086. DOI: 10.1186/s13058-020-01320-8. View

13.

Rikhi R, Wilson E, Deas O, Svalina M, Bial J, Mansoor A . Murine model of hepatic breast cancer. Biochem Biophys Rep. 2017; 8:1-5. PMC: 5613703. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2016.07.021. View

14.

Masciari S, Larsson N, Senz J, Boyd N, Kaurah P, Kandel M . Germline E-cadherin mutations in familial lobular breast cancer. J Med Genet. 2007; 44(11):726-31. PMC: 2752184. DOI: 10.1136/jmg.2007.051268. View

15.

Langley R, Fidler I . The seed and soil hypothesis revisited--the role of tumor-stroma interactions in metastasis to different organs. Int J Cancer. 2011; 128(11):2527-35. PMC: 3075088. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.26031. View

16.

Chalakur-Ramireddy N, Pakala S . Combined drug therapeutic strategies for the effective treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Biosci Rep. 2018; 38(1). PMC: 5789156. DOI: 10.1042/BSR20171357. View

17.

Guo J, Yu Z, Das M, Huang L . Nano Codelivery of Oxaliplatin and Folinic Acid Achieves Synergistic Chemo-Immunotherapy with 5-Fluorouracil for Colorectal Cancer and Liver Metastasis. ACS Nano. 2020; 14(4):5075-5089. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c01676. View

18.

Singh J, Novik Y, Stein S, Volm M, Meyers M, Smith J . Phase 2 trial of everolimus and carboplatin combination in patients with triple negative metastatic breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. 2014; 16(2):R32. PMC: 4053575. DOI: 10.1186/bcr3634. View

19.

Mentha G, Terraz S, Morel P, Andres A, Giostra E, Roth A . Dangerous halo after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and two-step hepatectomy for colorectal liver metastases. Br J Surg. 2008; 96(1):95-103. DOI: 10.1002/bjs.6436. View

20.

Bale R, Putzer D, Schullian P . Local Treatment of Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis. Cancers (Basel). 2019; 11(9). PMC: 6770644. DOI: 10.3390/cancers11091341. View