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Updated: Oct 13, 2025
Modeling Brain Metastases Through Intracranial Injection and Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: June 7, 2020
Breast Cancer Subtypes and Mortality of Breast Cancer Patients With Brain Metastasis at Diagnosis: A Population-Based
Dong-Jie He1, De-Quan Yu1, Qi-Ming Wang1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Tangdu Hospital, 56697The Second Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, People's Republic of China.
Background:
Brain metastasis is an important cause of breast cancer-related death.
Aim:
We evaluated the relationships between breast cancer subtype and prognosis among patients with brain metastasis at the initial diagnosis.
Methods:
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was searched to identify patients with brain metastasis from breast cancer between 2010 and 2015. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify factors that were associated with survival among patients with initial brain metastases. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare survival outcomes according to breast cancer subtype.
Results:
Among 752 breast cancer patients with brain metastasis at diagnosis, 140 patients (18.6%) underwent primary surgery and 612 patients (81.4%) did not undergo surgery, while 460 patients (61.2%) received chemotherapy and 292 patients (38.8%) did not receive chemotherapy. Multivariable analysis revealed that, relative to HR+/HER2- breast cancer, HR-/HER2- breast cancer was associated with significantly poorer overall survival (hazard ratio: 2.52, 95% confidence interval: 1.99-3.21), independent of age, sex, race, marital status, insurance status, grade, liver involvement, lung involvement, primary surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The median overall survival intervals were 12 months for HR+/HER2-, 19 months for HR+/HER2+, 11 months for HR-/HER2+, and 6 months for HR-/HER2- (P < .0001). Relative to HR+/HER2- breast cancer, HR-/HER2- breast cancer was associated with a significantly higher risk of mortality among patients, and the association was stronger among patients who received chemotherapy (p for interaction = .005).
Conclusions:
Breast cancer subtype significantly predicted overall survival among patients with brain metastasis at diagnosis.
