Preoperative Radiation Therapy for Chemorefractory Localized Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare breast cancer subtype. Chemorefractory nonmetastatic IBC, defined by locoregional progression under neoadjuvant chemotherapy, is a rare situation with few therapeutic options. Owing to the rarity of this clinical presentation and the lack of specific data, no specific management guidelines exist. We evaluated whether preoperative radiation therapy/chemoradiotherapy could achieve locoregional control after first-line neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with IBC.

Patients with chemorefractory disease receiving preoperative radiation therapy were identified from a retrospective multicenter cohort of consecutive patients with IBC diagnosed between 2010 and 2017 at 7 oncology centers in France.

Overall, 18 patients among the 364 patients (5%) treated for IBC had progressive disease during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. These patients had aggressive tumors with lymph node involvement at diagnosis (n = 17; 94.4%), triple-negative subtype (n = 11; 61.1%), Scarff Bloom and Richardson grade 3 (n = 10; 55.6%), and high Ki67 (median, 56.0%). After preoperative radiation therapy, all patients had a complete (n = 1; 5.6%) or partial (n = 17; 94.4%) locoregional response. One patient (5.6%) experienced acute grade 3 dermatitis. Twelve (66.7%) patients underwent surgery as planned. The estimated median follow-up was 31 months. The median overall survival, disease-free survival, distant metastases-free survival, and locoregional recurrence-free survival were 19 months, 4.5 months, 5 months, and 6 months, respectively. Ultimate locoregional control was obtained for 11 patients (61.1%), and 13 patients (72.2%) experienced metastatic progression. Triple-negative subtype (hazard ratio [HR], 15.54; P = .011) and surgery (HR, 0.23; P = .030) were significantly associated with overall survival in the univariate analysis. In multivariate analyses, the triple-negative subtype remained a significant prognostic factor (HR, 13.04; P = .021) for overall survival.

Preoperative radiation therapy is a feasible approach with acceptable toxicities. It allowed surgery and ultimate locoregional control in a majority of patients. The lack of translation into better survival has been a challenge, in part owing to the metastatic propensity of patients with chemorefractory IBC, especially in the overrepresented triple-negative population in this series.