Role of Loco-regional Surgery in metastatic breast cancer

Approximately 3-10% of patients of breast cancer present with metastatic disease. Traditionally the treatment of these patients has been systemic only with local therapy in form of surgery or RT offered only to palliate local complications like ulceration or haemorrhage, etc. We review and analyse the current literature on surgical removal of primary breast tumor in metastatic disease. Data for this review was compiled by searching the PubMed database. Though current evidence is not strong enough to recommend surgical removal in all MBC patients, there seems a subset of MBC patients who, when carefully selected, have a survival benefit from surgical removal of primary tumor. A carefully structured RCT with large number of patients and long follow up is needed.