Introduction: The achievement of complete response with chemotherapy after multiple treatment lines in metastatic breast cancer and the chemosensitivity in a luminal-like breast cancer are two important issues as it is often asked whether there is a potential limit to the number of therapeutic lines offered and what clinical value they may have. In this setting, eribulin mesylate is a chemotherapy option available. Several randomized and observational studies demonstrated eribulin's meaningful improvement on prolongation of survival, chronicling the disease and preventing the onset of new metastases, although the rate of complete responses is rather limited.
Case description: We report the five-year history of a luminal A breast cancer, stage IV at diagnosis, metastasized to bone and brain. After undergoing four chemotherapy lines and several radiotherapy sessions with partial response as the best response on bone and with a complete response on brain, our patient finally achieved a metabolic complete response also on bone after about a year of fifth-line treatment with eribulin. Currently the patient is in close clinical and radiological follow-up.
Conclusions: This case report aims to emphasize the clinical value of a chronic chemotherapy treatment also in heavily pretreated and luminal-like metastatic breast cancer, supporting eribulin as a good choice to consider.
Keywords: Metastatic breast cancer; chemoresistance; chemosensitivity; eribulin mesylate; luminal-like.