Recurrence of breast cancer after regional or general anaesthesia: a randomised controlled trial

Publication date: Available online 20 October 2019Source: The LancetAuthor(s): Daniel I Sessler, Lijian Pei, Yuguang Huang, Edith Fleischmann, Peter Marhofer, Andrea Kurz, Douglas B Mayers, Tanja A Meyer-Treschan, Martin Grady, Ern Yu Tan, Sabry Ayad, Edward J Mascha, Donal J Buggy, Gang Tan, Zhiyong Zhang, Helen Keane, Maurice Stokes, Oliver Zotti, Michael Gnant, Silvia Perez-ProttoSummaryBackgroundThree perioperative factors impair host defence against recurrence during cancer surgery: the surgical stress response, use of volatile anaesthetic, and opioids for analgesia. All factors are ameliorated by regional anaesthesia-analgesia. We tested the primary hypothesis that breast cancer recurrence after potentially curative surgery is lower with regional anaesthesia-analgesia using paravertebral blocks and the anaesthetic propofol than with general anaesthesia with the volatile anaesthetic sevoflurane and opioid analgesia. A second hypothesis was that regional anaesthesia-analgesia reduces persistent incisional pain.MethodsWe did a randomised controlled trial at 13 hospitals in Argentina, Austria, China, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, and the USA. Women (age <85 years) having potentially curative primary breast cancer resections were randomised by computer to either regional anaesthesia-analgesia (paravertebral blocks and propofol) or general anaesthesia (sevoflurane) and opioid analgesia. The primary outcome was local or metastatic breast cancer recurrence. The ...
Source: The Lancet - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research