To cite this version:Elodie Purpose: Several lines of chemotherapy can be proposed for patients with metastatic breast cancer, but beyond the second line, agreement is lacking concerning the most appropriate therapeutic strategy.
Methods:We conducted a retrospective analysis of the files of 162 patients, who had received at least three lines of chemotherapy (CT3) for metastatic breast cancer during a 5-year period (2000 to 2004), in order to analy ze management practices and search for factors affecting survival fro m CT3 and predictive factors of nonprogressive disease after CT3.Results: Multivariate analysis identified seven factors which had a positive influence on survival fro m CT3 (SBR grade I, absence of adjuvant hormone therapy, free interval ≥ 2 years, absence of cerebromeningeal metastasis before CT, unique focus at initiat ion of CT3, use of polychemotherapy for CT2, and comp lete res ponse to CT1 or CT2) and two predict ive factors of non-progressive disease (histology and drug group used for CT3).Conclusions: These factors should help determine the appropriate strategy for proposing a third line of chemotherapy.. .