Dr. McGuire on Evolving Role of Surgery in Metastatic Breast Cancer

Kandace McGuire, MD, associate professor of Surgery, UNC Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, UNC School of Medicine, discusses the evolving role of surgery in the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer during the 2016 OncLive State of the Science Summit on Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Surgery has evolved over the past decade quite a bit, McGuire explains. Debulking surgeries were found to be associated with improvements in survival in patients with other tumor types, leading researchers to believe the same could potentially be thought in breast cancer. Therefore, retrospective studies showed these survival benefits and that patients who responded well to their systemic treatments could then be eligible candidates for surgery.

However, results of prospective studies showed that there was no difference in survival outcomes in patients who underwent debulking surgery versus those who did not. Today, surgical oncologists are putting careful thought into which patients are most appropriate to have surgery.