Management of Hepatic Visceral Crisis Using Chemoimmunotherapy in PD-L1-High Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Case Report

TL;DR

A patient with advanced breast cancer and severe liver failure improved with chemoimmunotherapy, suggesting this treatment could work even in severe cases.

Contribution

This is the first reported case of chemoimmunotherapy managing hepatic visceral crisis in PD-L1-high metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Findings

The patient showed rapid clinical and biochemical improvement after starting pembrolizumab.

Hepatic visceral crisis did not recur despite disease progression.

PD-L1 high expression may predict response to immunotherapy even in severe liver dysfunction.

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Patients with metastatic breast cancer and visceral crisis are systematically excluded from clinical trials, leaving clinicians without evidence-based therapeutic guidance. To the best of our knowledge, no published reports have described the use of combined chemo-immunotherapy in mTNBC complicated by hepatic visceral crisis. Case presentation: We report the case of a 45-year-old woman with PD-L1-high recurrent TNBC who presented with acute, life-threatening hepatic failure. Laboratory evaluation revealed marked transaminase elevation, cholestasis, rising bilirubin levels, and clinical deterioration consistent with hepatic visceral crisis. Due to severe hepatic impairment, a sequential therapeutic strategy was adopted: treatment was initiated with dose-reduced weekly paclitaxel (80% of the standard dose), and pembrolizumab (200 mg every three weeks) was introduced at the fourth cycle. Shortly after immunotherapy initiation, the patient experienced rapid clinical improvement accompanied by significant biochemical recovery and radiologic tumor regression. Although disease progression occurred after four months, hepatic visceral crisis did not recur. Discussion: This case questions the conventional restriction of immunotherapy in the setting of severe hepatic dysfunction. The rapid biochemical recovery observed after pembrolizumab initiation suggests that immunologic antitumor activity may be preserved despite significant hepatic impairment. Furthermore, the high PD-L1 expression in this patient indicates that its predictive value may extend even to the context of visceral crisis. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that immunotherapy in combination with chemotherapy may represent a feasible therapeutic strategy in selected patients with PD-L1-high mTNBC presenting with hepatic visceral crisis.

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