Sessler DI, Pei L, Huang Y, et al. - Given that regional anesthesia-analgesia ameliorates the impairment—related to the surgical stress response, use of volatile anesthetic, and opioids for analgesia—in host defense against recurrence during cancer surgery, researchers examined if regional anesthesia-analgesia using paravertebral blocks and the anesthetic propofol results in lower breast cancer recurrence after potentially curative surgery than using general anesthesia with the volatile anesthetic sevoflurane and opioid analgesia. In addition, they assessed if persistent incisional pain reduces with regional anesthesia-analgesia. They performed a randomized controlled trial at 13 hospitals in Argentina, Austria, China, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, and the USA assigning 1,043 eligible women to regional anesthesia-analgesia and 1,065 to general anesthesia. Outcomes revealed no reduction in breast cancer recurrence after potentially curative surgery in correlation to receiving regional anesthesia-analgesia (paravertebral block and propofol) compared with volatile anesthesia (sevoflurane) and opioids. Anaesthetic technique seemed not affecting the frequency and severity of persistent incisional breast pain. Based on these findings, they suggest that either of the two anesthesia can be used with respect to breast cancer recurrence and persistent incisional pain.