Impact of anesthesia on postoperative breast cancer prognosis: A narrative review

The incidence of breast cancer has exhibited an annually increasing trend, and the disease has become the most common malignant tumour worldwide. Currently, the primary treatment for breast cancer is surgical resection. However, metastatic recurrence is the main cause of cancer-related death in this patient population. Various factors are associated with breast cancer prognosis, and anaesthesia-induced changes in the tumour microenvironment have attracted increasing attention. To date, however, it remains unclear whether anaesthetic drugs have a positive or negative impact on cancer outcomes after surgery. The present article reviews the effects of different anaesthetics on the postoperative prognosis of breast cancer surgery to guide the choice of anaesthetic technique(s) and agents for such patients.