[The features of liver metastasis of breast cancer on imaging and its response to arterial infusion chemotherapy].

Arterial infusion chemotherapy was performed in 21 patients with liver metastasis of breast cancer, which was suspected to be the limiting factor of the prognosis, and the relationship between the morphological types of liver metastases, percentage of the liver involved, their angiographic features and chemotherapeutic response was discussed. Four morphological types of liver metastases could be classified; solitary mass type, multiple nodular type, diffuse small nodular type, and mixed type. In most cases, metastatic lesions were detected as a hypoechoic area on US and as a low-density area on pre-enhanced CT scan. In their angiographic features, these lesions were revealed as hypervascular tumors in most cases. Enlargement of the common or proper hepatic artery and obstruction of the 1st or 2nd branch of the portal vein were seen in over 50% of cases. In 13 evaluable cases, the response rate was 84.6% (PR 11, NC 1, PD 1), and the 50% survival time was 13.5 months in responders and 11.0 months for all cases. With regard to the morphological type, 1, 2 and 4-type cases revealed partial response, but NC or PD cases belonged to morphological type 3. No relation between obstruction of the portal vein and the chemotherapeutic response was observed. Arterial infusion chemotherapy was thus shown to be an effective treatment for liver metastasis of breast cancer, but that the response to the treatment differed for each morphological type.