Adjuvant treatment with paclitaxel plus trastuzumab for node-negative breast cancer: real-life experience

Background: In node-negative HER2-overexpressed breast cancers, adjuvant paclitaxel plus trastuzumab treatment is a successful de-escalation approach with excellent survival outcomes. Methods: All patients with HER2+ breast cancer treated in our centers were retrospectively reviewed. Results: We analyzed 173 patients who were treated with adjuvant paclitaxel plus trastuzumab. The mean tumor size was 2.2 cm. There were eight invasive disease events or death: four distant recurrences (2.3%), three locoregional recurrences (1.7%) and one death without documented recurrence after a 52 month follow-up. The 3-year disease-free survival and recurrence-free interval rate was 96.6%. Conclusion: This real-life experience with adjuvant paclitaxel plus trastuzumab demonstrated few distant recurrences and is compatible with the APT trial findings.