To evaluate the therapeutic effects of radiofrequency ablation and surgical resection for liver metastasis from breast cancer.

Clinical data of 15 patients with liver metastasis from breast cancer admitted and treated in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University between January 2010 and May 2014 were retrospectively studied. All patients were females with the age ranging from 33 to 66 years old and the median of 49 years old. The informed consents of all patients were obtained and the local ethical committee approval had been received. According to the different therapeutic regimen, the patients were divided into radiofrequency ablation + chemotherapy group (ablation group, n=9) and surgery + chemotherapy group (surgery group, n=6). The conditions of two groups during the perioperative period were observed and the survival analysis was performed. The observations during perioperative period between two groups was compared using t test, the rates was compared using Fisher's exact test and the survival analysis was conducted using Kaplan-Meier method and Log-rank test.

The mean operation time of the ablation group was (26±5) min, which was significantly shorter than (151±27) min of the surgery group (t=-18.69, P<0.05). No case in the ablation group received blood transfusion while 3 cases in the surgery group received blood transfusion during the operation. The tumor clearance rate of the surgery group was 100%,which was the same with that of the ablation group. The postoperative hospital stay of the ablation group was (6±2) d, which was significantly shorter than (11±5) d of the surgery group (t=-3.70, P<0.05). The incidence of postoperative complications of the ablation group was 4/9, which was significantly lower than 5/6 of the surgery group (P=0.02). The median survival time of the ablation group and the surgery group was respectively 33, 23 months. The 1-, 2- and 5-year cumulative survival rate were respectively 88.9%, 66.7% and 22.2% for the ablation group and were respectively 82.3%, 50.0% and 0 for the surgery group and no significant difference was observed between two groups (χ²=1.53, P>0.05).

The radiofrequency ablation for patients with liver metastasis from breast cancer can have the same therapeutic effect with surgical resection, and has advantages of short operation time, low incidence of postoperative complications and short postoperative hospital stay.