npj Breast Cancer (Apr 2023)

Identifying breast cancer patients at risk of relapse despite pathological complete response after neoadjuvant therapy

  • Jens Huober,
  • Marion van Mackelenbergh,
  • Andreas Schneeweiss,
  • Fenja Seither,
  • Jens-Uwe Blohmer,
  • Carsten Denkert,
  • Hans Tesch,
  • Claus Hanusch,
  • Christoph Salat,
  • Kerstin Rhiem,
  • Christine Solbach,
  • Peter A. Fasching,
  • Christian Jackisch,
  • Mattea Reinisch,
  • Bianca Lederer,
  • Keyur Mehta,
  • Theresa Link,
  • Valentina Nekljudova,
  • Sibylle Loibl,
  • Michael Untch

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41523-023-00525-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Abstract This retrospective pooled analysis aims to identify factors predicting relapse despite a pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients with breast cancer (BC). 2066 patients with a pCR from five neoadjuvant GBG/AGO-B trials fulfill the inclusion criteria of this analysis. Primary endpoint is disease-free survival (DFS); secondary endpoints is distant DFS (DDFS) and overall survival (OS). After a median follow-up of 57.6 months, DFS is significantly worse for patients with positive lymph nodes (cN+ vs cN0 hazard ratio [HR] 1.94, 95%CI 1.48–2.54; p < 0.001). In patients with triple-negative tumors, lobular histology (lobular vs other HR 3.55, 95%CI 1.53–8.23; p = 0.003), and clinical nodal involvement (cN+ vs cN0 HR 2.45, 95%CI 1.59–3.79; p < 0.001) predict a higher risk of DFS events. Patients with HER2-positive cT3/4 tumors have a significantly higher risk of relapse (cT3/4 vs cT1 HR 2.07, 95%CI 1.06–4.03; p = 0.033). Initial tumor load and histological type predict relapse in patients with a pCR.