Advances in treatment and care in metastatic breast cancer (MBC): are there MBC patients who are curable?

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains a largely incurable disease. The goals of treatment for MBC are still to maintain quality of life and prolong survival. However, some cases of MBC with a long-term relapse free survival occurs, implying that a small subset of MBC patients could become curable. Although it is a controversial issue of whether MBC can be cured, a more aggressive multidisciplinary approach to MBC with a curable intent may help improve MBC patient outcomes. The Earlier detection of metastatic disease by using modern imaging technologies may allow the detection of metastasis before cancer cells spread widely. This brief review focuses on the potentials of clinical response at initial therapy of MBC and early detection of metastatic disease of the possibility of cure of MBC patients.