Cancer Research and Treatment

Original Article

Breast cancer

Changes in Invasive Breast Carcinomas after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Can Influence Adjuvant Therapeutic Decisions: Bárbara Jaime dos Santos, Débora Balabram, Virginia Mara Reis Gomes, Carolina Costa Café de Castro, Paulo Henrique Costa Diniz, Marcelo Araújo Buzelin, Cristiana Buzelin Nunes; Cancer Res Treat. 2024;56(1):178-190. Published online August 1, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4143/crt.2023.386

Purpose
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) can change invasive breast carcinomas (IBC) and influence the patients’ overall survival time (OS). We aimed to identify IBC changes after NACT and their association with OS.
Materials and Methods
IBC data in pre- and post-NACT samples of 86 patients were evaluated and associated with OS.
Results
Post-NACT tumors changed nuclear pleomorphism score (p=0.025); mitotic count (p=0.002); % of tumor-infiltrating inflammatory cells (p=0.016); presence of in situ carcinoma (p=0.001) and lymphovascular invasion (LVI; p=0.002); expression of estrogen (p=0.003), progesterone receptors (PR; p=0.019), and Ki67 (p=0.003). Immunohistochemical (IHC) profile changed in 26 tumors (30.2%, p=0.050). Higher risk of death was significatively associated with initial tumor histological grade III (hazard ratio [HR], 2.94), high nuclear pleomorphism (HR, 2.53), high Ki67 index (HR, 2.47), post-NACT presence of LVI (HR, 1.90), luminal B–like profile (HR, 2.58), pre- (HR, 2.26) and post-NACT intermediate mitotic count (HR, 2.12), pre- (HR, 4.45) and post-NACT triple-negative IHC profile (HR, 4.52). On the other hand, lower risk of death was significative associated with pre- (HR, 0.35) and post-NACT (HR, 0.39) estrogen receptor–positive, and pre- (HR, 0.37) and post-NACT (HR, 0.57) PR-positive. Changes in IHC profile were associated with longer OS (p=0.050). In multivariate analysis, pre-NACT grade III tumors and pre-NACT and post-NACT triple negative IHC profile proved to be independent factors for shorter OS.
Conclusion
NACT can change tumor characteristics and biomarkers and impact on OS; therefore, they should be reassessed on residual samples to improve therapeutic decisions.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

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