Rates of Pathologic Complete Response and Overall Survival in Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer: A National...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Clinical Research
• Cancer Survival Analysis

Background:

• Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is associated with poorer survival rates compared to stage III non-IBC cohorts.
• The prognostic value of achieving a pathologic complete response (pCR) in IBC remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare overall survival (OS) between IBC and non-IBC patients who achieved pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).
• To evaluate the prognostic significance of pCR in IBC within the context of stage III breast cancer.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of adult females diagnosed with stage III unilateral invasive breast cancer between 2010-2018 from the National Cancer Database.
• Patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by surgery.
• Overall survival (OS) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard models.

Main Results:

• The study included 38,390 patients (12.0% IBC, 88.0% non-IBC).
• Pathologic complete response (pCR) rates were lower in IBC patients (20.7%) compared to non-IBC patients (23.3%).
• Among patients achieving pCR, 5-year mortality was higher for IBC patients (16.4%) versus non-IBC patients (9.1%), with IBC associated with worse OS (HR 1.48).

Conclusions:

• IBC patients exhibit lower pCR rates and worse overall survival compared to stage III non-IBC patients.
• Achieving pCR in IBC patients may not confer the same favorable prognostic impact as observed in non-IBC stage III patients, despite advances in systemic therapies.