Study reveals choice of anesthesia may affect breast cancer metastases

According to a recent study, the choice of anaesthesia may change the metastatic process of breast cancer by affecting the cytokine and microenvironment.

The study was led by Stony Brook University Cancer Center researchers. It was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Jun Lin, MD, Ph.D., of the Department of Anesthesiology in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and colleagues found that a sweet-smelling, nonflammable, highly fluorinated methyl isopropyl - sevoflurane anesthesia leads to more metastatic burden in the lung, after breast tumour resecting surgery than propofol in laboratory models.

The study findings may serve as a guide to design clinical trials for clinicians to optimise anaesthesia choice for breast cancer surgery in order to achieve the best long-term outcomes.