In brief: Choice of anesthesia may affect breast cancer metastases

A new study led by Stony Brook University Cancer Center researchers to be published in Nature Communications suggests that the choice of anesthesia may change the metastatic process of breast cancer by affecting the cytokine and microenvironment.

Jun Lin, MD, Ph.D., of the Department of Anesthesiology in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and colleagues found that sevoflurane anesthesia leads to more metastatic burden in the lung after breast tumor resecting surgery than propofol in laboratory models.

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