Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy is Not Associated with Improved Overall Survival in Metaplastic Breast Cancer Regardless of...

Metaplastic breast cancer (MpBC) is a rare breast cancer subtype historically less responsive to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), regardless of receptor status. Given increasing NAC administration in recent years, we analyzed contemporary treatment patterns and outcomes of patients with MpBC.

Patients with MpBC were selected (2012-2020) from the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Patient characteristics were compared by receptor subtype. Unadjusted overall survival (OS) was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method; log-rank tests were used to compare groups. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the association of demographic and clinicopathologic variables with OS after adjustment.

Among 4,601 patients (median age, 64 years) with MpBC, 72.7% were triple negative (n = 3,344), 21.6% HR+/HER2- (n = 995), and 5.7% HER2+ (n = 262). More HER2+ patients received NAC (34.4%) than TN (20.6%) or HR+/HER- (16%, p < 0.001), but overall use of NAC remained low (20.4%). Unadjusted OS did not differ by receptor subtype or stage. Of those who received NAC, HER2+ patients had double the pCR rate (20%) compared with triple negative (9.1%) and HR+/HER2- (10.1%, p = 0.006). Adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved unadjusted OS at all timepoints, whereas NAC showed no survival benefit at 1 year and 3 years, a trend consistent across receptor subtypes. After adjustment, adjuvant chemotherapy remained associated with improved OS (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.59-0.8).

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy administration and pCR rates remain low for MpBC, and NAC is not associated with OS, supporting the treatment approach of upfront surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. Further investigation is needed into novel systemic therapies to determine pCR rates and impact on OS.