# Peritumoral lidocaine before breast cancer surgery (Tata Memorial)

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/lidocaine-peritumoral-tmh/  
OnCo record `lidocaine-peritumoral-tmh` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Injecting a common local anaesthetic around the tumour minutes before surgery cut the risk of recurrence and death in a 1,583-woman Indian trial, at almost no cost.

## Summary

1,583 women with early breast cancer were randomised to peritumoral lidocaine (n=796) or no injection (n=804) before surgery. At 5 years disease-free survival was 86.6% versus 82.6% (hazard ratio 0.74; P=0.017), overall survival 90.1% versus 86.4% (hazard ratio 0.71; P=0.019) and distant recurrence 8.5% versus 11.6% (hazard ratio 0.73), with no adverse events from the intervention. The proposed mechanism is blockade of voltage-gated sodium channels and surgery-induced tumour cell activation and dissemination. Confirmation in other populations is awaited before guideline adoption, but the trial is a model of the cheap, mechanism-led perioperative interventions Tata Memorial has pursued for two decades.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: positive
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Phase: 3
- Setting: Early breast cancer: peritumoral infiltration of 0.5% lidocaine immediately before surgery vs surgery alone
- Sponsor: Tata Memorial Centre
- Enrolled: 1583
- Result: 5-year DFS 86.6% vs 82.6% (HR 0.74); OS 90.1% vs 86.4% (HR 0.71).
- Outcomes: 5-year disease-free survival: Peritumoral lidocaine 86.6% vs No lidocaine 82.6%, HR 0.74; 5-year overall survival: Peritumoral lidocaine 90.1% vs No lidocaine 86.4%, HR 0.71

## Sources

- Badwe et al., JCO 2023: https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.22.01966

## Connected records

- cancers: [HER2-positive breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-her2-positive/), [HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-hr-positive/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- institutions: [Tata Memorial Centre](https://onco.cc/institutions/tata-memorial/)
- terms: [Overall survival (OS)](https://onco.cc/terms/os/)
- people: [Rajendra Badwe](https://onco.cc/people/badwe-rajendra/)
- bottlenecks: [Metastasis is understood least and studied last](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-metastasis-biology/), [No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-generic-repurposing/), [Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-surgery-radiation-innovation/)
- key papers: [Effect of Peritumoral Infiltration of Local Anesthetic Before Surgery on Survival in Early Breast Cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-badwe-j-clin-oncol/), [Single-injection depot progesterone before surgery and survival in operable breast cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-badwe-progesterone-jco-2011/)
- trials: [Single-injection depot progesterone before breast surgery (Tata Memorial)](https://onco.cc/trials/progesterone-preop-tmh/)

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