Abstract
Introduction/Background
To investigate the differences in pathological response and survival outcomes between
dose-dense and conventional-interval neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with
triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
Patients and Methods
Patients with TNBC who received NAC including epirubicin plus cyclophosphamide followed
by weekly paclitaxel were included. A total of 494 patients were divided into either
the dose-dense anthracycline (ddEC-wP) group or conventional interval anthracycline
(EC-wP) group.
Results
The breast pathological complete response (bpCR, ypT0/is) rate was 45.3% (n = 101)
in the dose-dense group and 34.3% (n = 93) in the conventionally scheduled group,
which was a significant difference (P = .013), and in the 251 pN+ cases, the lymph node pathological complete response (LNpCR,
ypN0) rate was 57.9% (n = 62) in the dose-dense group and 43.7% (n = 63) in the conventionally
scheduled group, which was a significant difference (P = .026) in the univariate analysis. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis,
3 variables were predictive of bpCR: pathological type, surgical methods and type
of chemotherapy, with P values of .012, .001 and .021, respectively. Two variables were predictive of LNpCR:
type of chemotherapy and Her-2 expression, with P values of .039 and .020, respectively. After a median follow-up of 54 months, there
was no significant difference in survival for disease-free survival (DFS) (hazard
ratio [HR], 0.788; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.508 to 1.223; P = .288), distant disease-free survival (DDFS) (HR, 0. 709; 95% CI, 0.440 to 1.144;
P = .159) or overall survival (OS) (HR, 0. 750; 95% CI, 0.420 to 1.338; P = .330) between the 2 groups.
Conclusion
Our study demonstrated that TNBC achieved a higher bpCR rate and LNpCR rate after
dose-dense neoadjuvant chemotherapy than the conventional scheme. The survival benefit
of the 2 groups did not reach statistical difference.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 20, 2023
Accepted:
February 15,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 19,
2023
Received:
October 28,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc.
