Predicting Responses to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer: ACRIN 6691 Trial of Diffuse Optical Spectroscopic...

The prospective multicenter ACRIN 6691 trial was designed to evaluate whether changes from baseline to mid-therapy in a diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging (DOSI)-derived imaging endpoint, the tissue optical index (TOI), predict pathologic complete response (pCR) in women undergoing breast cancer neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). DOSI instruments were constructed at the University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA), and delivered to six institutions where 60 subjects with newly diagnosed breast tumors (at least 2 cm in the longest dimension) were enrolled over a 2-year period. Bedside DOSI images of the tissue concentrations of deoxy-hemoglobin (ctHHb), oxy-hemoglobin (ctHbO₂), water (ctH₂O), lipid, and TOI (ctHHb × ctH₂O/lipid) were acquired on both breasts up to four times during NAC treatment: baseline, 1-week, mid-point, and completion. Of the 34 subjects (mean age 48.4 ± 10.7 years) with complete, evaluable data from both normal and tumor-containing breast, 10 (29%) achieved pCR as determined by central pathology review. The percent change in tumor-to-normal TOI ratio (%TOI_TN) from baseline to mid-therapy ranged from -82% to 321%, with a median of -36%. Using pCR as the reference standard and ROC curve methodology, %TOI_TN AUC was 0.60 (95% CI, 0.39-0.81). In the cohort of 17 patients with baseline tumor oxygen saturation (%StO₂) greater than the 77% population median, %TOI_TN AUC improved to 0.83 (95% CI, 0.63-1.00). We conclude that the combination of baseline functional properties and dynamic optical response shows promise for clinical outcome prediction. Cancer Res; 76(20); 5933-44. ©2016 AACR.