Are Cure Rates for Breast Cancer Improved by Local and Regional Anesthesia?

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Surgical Oncology
• Cancer Research

Background:

• Preclinical studies suggest general anesthesia (GA) may negatively impact tumor immunity and cancer outcomes.
• Previous research indicated potential benefits of local or regional anesthesia (LRA) for breast cancer patients, but this requires validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether local or regional anesthesia (LRA) is associated with improved cancer outcomes compared to general anesthesia (GA) in breast cancer patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of a prospectively collected database of 1107 stage 0-III breast cancer patients.
• Comparison of outcomes between patients receiving LRA versus GA.
• Analysis of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and local regional recurrence (LRR) using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression after propensity score matching.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were observed in 5-year OS (87.1% LRA vs. 85.5% GA), DFS (96.1% LRA vs. 94.2% GA), or LRR (95.8% LRA vs. 96.3% GA) between the LRA and GA groups.
• Cox regression analysis did not show statistically significant differences in OS (HR 0.81), DFS (HR 0.91), or LRR (HR 1.73) between the anesthesia groups.

Conclusions:

• The type of anesthesia (LRA vs. GA) did not affect breast cancer overall survival, disease-free survival, or local regional recurrence in this patient cohort.
• These findings do not corroborate previous clinical reports or basic science studies suggesting oncologic benefits of LRA over GA.