Key clinical point: Pretreatment tumor stage and nodal involvement could predict the risk for disease relapse in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) early breast cancer (BC) who had achieved pathologic complete response (pCR) with neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus anti-HER2 therapy.
Major finding: Patients who did vs did not achieve pCR had prolonged event-free survival (EFS; hazard ratio [HR] 0.39) and overall survival (HR 0.32; both P < .001). However, in patients with pCR, higher pretreatment tumor stage (cT3-4 vs cT1-2; P = .007) and presence of nodal involvement (cN+ vs cN−; P = .039) could worsen EFS.
Study details: This study analyzed the data of 3710 patients with HER2+ early BC from 11 trials who had received neoadjuvant chemotherapy+anti-HER2 therapy, of which 40.4% of patients had achieved pCR.
Disclosures: This study was supported by author Sibylle Loibl. Several authors declared serving as consultants or advisors, receiving honoraria or research funding, or having other ties with various sources.
Source: van Mackelenbergh MT et al on behalf of the CTNeoBC project. Pathologic complete response and individual patient prognosis after neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 therapy of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive early breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2023 (Apr 19). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.02241