Key clinical point: Patients with early breast cancer (BC) who achieve pathological complete response (pCR) with neoadjuvant chemotherapy can nevertheless be at risk for disease relapse if there is nodal involvement at diagnosis and tumors are large and have lobular histology.
Major finding: Disease-free survival (DFS) was worse in the overall cohort (hazard ratio [HR] 1.94; P < .001) and in patients with triple-negative BC (TNBC; HR 2.45; P < .001) who did vs did not have initial positive lymph node involvement. Lobular histology (HR 3.55; P = .003) and large tumors (cT3/4; HR 2.07; P = .033) were also associated with a higher risk for shorter DFS in patients with TNBC and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive BC, respectively.
Study details: This retrospective pooled analysis included 2066 patients with BC who had achieved pCR.
Disclosures: This study was funded by Projekt DEAL, Germany. Some authors declared receiving consulting fees, honoraria, travel expenses, research grants, or honoraria or having other ties with several sources.
Source: Huober J et al. Identifying breast cancer patients at risk of relapse despite pathological complete response after neoadjuvant therapy. NPJ Breast Cancer. 2023;9:23 (Apr 7). Doi: 10.1038/s41523-023-00525-2