Nachsorge – was gibt es Neues?

Follow-up care after curative primary therapy is a central component of the treatment of breast cancer patients and has remained unchanged in clinical practice for many years. Early detection measures for asymptomatic distant metastases are not recommended based on studies conducted over 30 years ago.

This review aims to present current scientific knowledge on the detection of local or distant breast cancer recurrences.

A selective literature search was performed in PubMed and Google Scholar using the terms “breast cancer surveillance” and “breast cancer aftercare,” also in combination with “liquid biopsy,” “ctDNA,” and “circulating tumor DNA.” A targeted search of clinicaltrials.gov. was also performed.

According to initial studies, the potential of liquid biopsy, particularly based on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), provides a reliable method for the detection of minimal residual disease and demonstrates significant potential as a prognostic parameter. This could enable early therapeutic intervention with effective new substances—long before patients notice symptoms of recurrent disease. Whether these findings can be translated into clinical practice will be determined by ongoing studies.