Abstract 4887
Background
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Indian women. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with poor prognosis at any stage of diagnosis. It is an aggressive disease with a 5-year survival rate of 77% compared to 93% for other subtypes. Prevalence of TNBC in India is higher compared to western populations, making it an important target for early detection and treatment. Potential superiority of dose-dense chemotherapy in comparison with conventional regimen has been recently demonstrated in a meta-analysis in 2017 across various subsets of breast cancer. Aim of this study was to analyse survival outcomes in TNBC treated with dose dense chemotherapy at a tertiary care centre in India.
Methods
Retrospective analysis of patients diagnosed with TNBC stage I-III in last 8 years treated with 2 weekly dose dense AC regimen (adriamycin at 60mg/m2and cyclophosphamide at 600mg/m2 for 4 cycles followed by 2 weekly Paclitaxel at175 mg/m2 for 4 cycles or weekly Paclitaxel at 80 mg/m2 for 12 cycles) with growth factor support in adjuvant or neoadjuvant (NACT) setting. Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) was defined as T > 5cm and ≥N2 disease. Kaplan–Meier method and log rank test were used to estimate survival functions.
Results
97 patients with ER, PR and Her2neu receptor negative status were evaluated. Median age at diagnosis was 44 years (range 26 - 68 years). 56.7% had stage II disease, 36% stage III and rest stage I (7.2%). Disease free survival (DFS) rate ± SE at 2 years and 5 years was 90% ± 3% and 75% ± 5% respectively. Overall survival (OS) rate ± SE at 5 years was 82% ± 6%. 24 patients received NACT out of which 12 (50%) patients had pathCR. The DFS rate did not differ significantly between adjuvant and neoadjuvant subgroups. Early breast cancer and LABC subgroups had a statistically significant difference in DFS rates (p = 0.0002).
Conclusions
To our knowledge, this is the first study in India to evaluate survival outcomes of dose dense therapy in TNBC. The improved DFS (75%) and OS (82%) in this high risk subgroup are very promising, especially in patients with early disease. We advocate use of dose dense regimen in all patients of TNBC in curative setting.
Clinical trial identification
Legal entity responsible for the study
Manipal Hospital Ethics Committee.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Editorial Acknowledgement
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.