Locally advanced breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and adjuvant radiotherapy: a retrospective cohort analysis

BackgroundNeoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is increasingly used to treat locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Improved response to NAC correlates with better survival outcomes. The dual purpose of this study is to report recurrence and survival outcomes for LABC patients treated with NAC, surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy and to correlate these outcomes with tumour response after NAC using multiple response assessment methods.MethodsAll LABC patients treated for curative intent with NAC, surgery, and adjuvant radiotherapy at our institute between January 2009 and December 2014 were included for analysis. NAC was mostly anthracycline and taxane-based; radiotherapy consisted of 50Gy to the breast/chest wall and regional lymph nodes. Response to NAC was categorized using synoptic pathology reports, modified-RECIST and Chevallier scores. Survival curves were generated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test.ResultsThe cohort included 103 patients nearly equally divided between Stage II (n=53) and Stage III (n=50). Rates of locoregional control (LRC), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) were 99, 98, and 100% at 1year and 89, 69 and 77% at 5years, respectively. Responses to NAC did not correlate with LRC (p>0.05) but did correlate with RFS and OS (p<0.05), except that the Chevallier score did not predict RFS (p=0.06). Using bivariate Cox modeling tumour size before (p=0.003) and after (p<0.001) NAC, stage group (p=0.05), and response assessed by synoptic pathology (p=0.05), modified-RECIST (p=0.001), and Chevallier score (p=0.015) all predicted for RFS. No factors predicted for LRC.ConclusionPathologic response by all tested methods correlated with improved survival but were not associated with decreased LRC.