38P - Exploring prognostic factors in patients achieving PCR after neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer: A retrospective study based on SEER data

Background

Patients who reach pathological complete remission (PCR) after neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have a better overall prognosis and do not require additional adjuvant therapy postoperatively according to current guidelines; however, some patients still have a lower survival rate.

Methods

We identified TNBC patients who completed neoadjuvant therapy and achieved PCR registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2010 and 2015. We analyzed the relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival, seeking to explore the high-risk factors for poor prognosis in patients who achieved PCR after neoadjuvant therapy for TNBC.

Results

A total of 1237 TNBC patients without distant metastases completed neoadjuvant therapy and achieved PCR, and their 5-year overall survival rate was 90.78%. We incorporated age, TNM stage (AJCC 7th edition), and presence of lymph node metastasis as variables to construct a multifactorial COX proportional risk model. The results found no statistically significant effect on survival time in stage II patients compared to stage I patients (HR=1.057, 95%CI 0.540-2.069, P=0.872), but statistically significant compared to stage III patients (HR=2.441, 95%CI 1.159-5.144, P=0.019). There was a statistically significant effect on survival time in patients with lymph node metastases compared to those without lymph node metastases (HR=1.913, 95%CI 1.253-2.921, P=0.003); and no statistically significant effect on survival time in patients younger than 40 years compared to those older than 40 years (HR=1.190, 95%CI 0.615-2.302, P= 0.605).

Conclusions

Younger age is not a factor influencing the prognosis of TNBC patients with PCR. For patients with stage III or lymph node metastases, even if PCR is achieved, further adjuvant therapy may be needed to improve prognosis. The type of adjuvant therapy to be used may need to be further confirmed by future prospective clinical trials.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The author.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

The author has declared no conflicts of interest.