Radiotherapy in the Management of Non-Metastatic Inflammatory Breast Cancers: A Retrospective Observational Study

Abstract

(1) Background: Inflammatory breast cancers (IBC) are characterized by a poor prognosis. This retrospective study aims to describe the clinical outcomes of non-metastatic IBC patients treated with a multidisciplinary approach with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy. (2) Methods: This single-center retrospective study included all women patients diagnosed with non-metastatic IBC between January 2010 and January 2018 at the Institut Curie (Paris, France) and treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and locoregional free survival (LRRFS) were calculated from the time of diagnosis. Prognostic factors for patient survival were analyzed based on univariate and multivariate regressions. (3) Results: We identified 113 patients with a median age of 51 years. 79.7% had node-positive tumors; triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) represented 34.6% of the cases. A large majority of patients (91.2%) received adjuvant post-mastectomy while ten patients (8.8%) received preoperative radiotherapy. Non-pathological complete response (non-pCR) was observed in 67.3% of patients. Radiotherapy delivered a median dose of 50 Gy to the breast or the chest wall in 25 fractions. With a median follow-up of 54 months, 5-year OS, DFS and LRRFS were 78% (CI: 70.1–86.8%), 68.1% (59.6–77.7%), and 85.2% (78.4–92.7%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, non-pCR was an adverse prognosis factor for OS, DFS, and LRRFS; pre-operative radiotherapy was an adverse prognosis factor for OS and DFS. Radiation-related adverse events were limited to acute skin toxicity (22% of Grade 2 and 2% of grade 3 dermatitis); no late radiation-induced toxicity was reported. (4) Conclusions: High locoregional control could be achieved with multidisciplinary management of non-metastatic IBC, suggesting the anti-tumor efficacy of radiotherapy in this rare but pejorative clinicopathological presentation. While comparing favorably with historical cohorts, OS and DFS could be potentially improved in the future with the use of new systemic treatments, such as PARP-inhibitors or immunotherapy.

Keywords

• inflammatory breast cancers
• triple-negative breast cancers
• post-mastectomy radiation therapy