How to Best Treat Oligometastatic Breast Cancer

Oligometastatic breast cancer is breast cancer that’s spread to parts of the body away from the breast, like the bones or liver, but there are only a few small cancer lesions at the metastatic site. Dr. Jennifer Plichta, of Duke University, was the corresponding author of a paper looking at treatments for oligometastatic breast cancer, including surgery to remove the primary tumor in the breast and removing the metastatic lesion with surgery or treating it with radiation. The study found that removing the primary breast tumor was associated with better survival. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Plichta explain: how oligometastatic breast cancer is defined why it’s difficult to study oligometastatic breast cancer the results of her study and what they mean for people with oligometastatic disease