Electrochemotherapy in the Treatment of Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue - Multicenter Experience

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer is responsible for more than 50% of cutaneous metastases. One of the treatment options is electrochemotherapy (ECT). It is an effective method of local tumor ablation through the application of electroporation. The primary objective of the study was to demonstrate a response to the treatment in our group of patients. METHODS: Between February 2015 and October 2016, in 3 centers in Poland, 47 ECT procedures were performed in 38 patients with metastasis of breast cancer to the skin. RESULTS: At 12 weeks after the procedures, 71% of patients showed a positive response to the treatment (42% with complete response, and 29% with partial response). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that only the estrogen receptor status and the size of the metastatic lesion were predictive of overall response (p = 0.0243 and p = 0.03716, respectively). CONCLUSION: The results of our study demonstrate a high effectiveness of ECT in the treatment of cutaneous metastasis from breast cancer. This method, although used for palliative treatment, brings a significant improvement in the quality of life of patients.