J Breast Dis.  2016 Dec;4(2):108-115. 10.14449/jbd.2016.4.2.108.

Evaluation of Prognostic Factors and Validation of Tumor Response Ratios after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Breast Cancer

• Moon T
• Cho DH
• Youn JM
• Lee JB
• Bae JW
• Jung SP

• KMID: 2368449
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14449/jbd.2016.4.2.108

Abstract

PURPOSE
In the treatment of breast cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is useful to reduce breast cancer size before surgical intervention. Patients who achieve a pathologic complete response (pCR) to NAC have improved overall survival (OS). However, the relationship between prognosis and partial response is yet unclear. In this study, we evaluated prognostic factors and the tumor response ratio (TRR) method among patients who received NAC.
METHODS
Clinicopathologic factors were evaluated to predict OS. The TRR was calculated by dividing pathologic tumor size by clinical tumor size. TRRs were then categorized into four groups, and the survival times for the different TRR groups were compared using statistical evaluation.
RESULTS
Clinical N stage (p=0.02), overall stage (p=0.04), pathologic N stage (p=0.03), hormone receptor status (p=0.01), and lymphovascular invasion (p=0.02) were significantly associated with OS. Pathologic overall stage and TRR did not correlate with OS. Patients with a pCR exhibited the best survival rates using the current staging system and the TRR method.
CONCLUSION
Clinicopathologic factors can be easily applied to predict OS, and clinicians could use these parameters until an accurate, simple, and highly discriminatory methods is developed to assess breast cancer patients with a partial.

Keyword

Breast neoplasms; Neoadjuvant therapy; Prognosis; Response