[A case of recurrent breast cancer that responded to bevacizumab]

We report a case of a 59-year-old woman who was forced to undergo mastectomy of the right breast (Rt Bt) plus axillary lymph node (Ax) dissection for right breast cancer at another hospital. The pathological diagnosis was invasive ductal carcinoma( scirrhou[s sci], pT2N2M0, Stage IIIA, estrogen recepto[r ER[]+], progesterone recepto[r PgR[]+], human epidermal growth factor receptor-2[HER2][2+]). Although no recurrence was observed after postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and endocrine therapy, skin metastasis on the left back and pleuritis carcinomatosa were detected at our hospital 9 years and 6 months after the operation. Thereafter, bone metastasis, contralateral lymph node metastasis, and frequent occurrence of hepatic metastasis were sequentially detected. The patient was treated with chemotherapy (a total of 4 regimens) and endocrine therapy in addition to radiation therapy for lymph node metastasis over a period of approximately 2 years and 3 months; however, disease control was poor. Therefore, combined chemotherapy with paclitaxel and bevacizumab was initiated from February 2012. Soon after the initiation of combination therapy, the serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level gradually reduced and computed tomography (CT) revealed that the multiple-organ metastases had remarkably reduced in size. The response was classified as a clinical partial response (cPR). Although adverse events such as peripheral neuropathy, nose bleeding, and high blood pressure were observed, these were all of lesser that Grade 2 severity. The efficacy of chemotherapy was noted for 11 months.