Oligometastasierung – Hype oder Hoffnung?

Nearly 30 years have passed since the seminal paper by Hellman and Weichselbaum. Nevertheless, the concepts of oligometastatic disease (OMD) and metastases-directed therapy (MDT) have only been implemented for a limited number of oncological diseases.

The current article aims to give an overview of the current evidence for MDT in patients with OMD.

A semi-structured literature review was performed.

There are still no universally accepted definitions of or staging criteria for OMD. However, a systematic classification for OMD has been established. At least 13 randomized-controlled trials studying the role of MDT have been published, of which 11 showed an improvement in progression-free survival and, in some instances, also in overall survival.

Ongoing clinical trials are analyzing the role of MDT in patients with more than 3–5 metastases and assessing the optimal integration of local and systemic therapy. Furthermore, there are attempts to further characterize the biology of OMD.