Abstract
The prognostic value of intensive postoperative bone scan (BS) screening, which is performed in asymptomatic patients with breast cancer (BC) after surgery, remained unclear. Patients diagnosed with BC with bone metastasis (BM) from five medical centers in China during the years 2005−2013 were retrospectively collected. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the baseline characteristics. The survival outcomes were overall survival (OS) and overall survival after BM (OSABM). Among 1059 eligible patients, 304 underwent intensive postoperative BS while 755 did not. During a median follow-up of 6.67 years (95%CI 6.45, 7.21), intensive postoperative BS prolonged the median OS by 1.63 years (Log-Rank p = 0.006) and OSABM by 0.66 years (Log-Rank p = 0.002). Intensive postoperative BS was an independent prognostic factor for both OS (adjusted HR 0.77, 95%CI 0.64, 0.93, adjusted p = 0.006) and OSABM (adjusted HR 0.71, 95%CI 0.60, 0.86, adjusted p < 0.001). The prognostic value of intensive postoperative BS was consistently favorable for OS among clinical high-risk patients, including those with ages younger than 50, stage II, histology grade G3 and ER-Her2- subtype. This multicenter real-world study showed that intensive postoperative BS screening improved survival for BC patients with BM and should probably be recommended for postoperative surveillance, especially for patients at clinical high-risk.