Research article

Prognostic impact of clinicopathologic parameters in stage II/III breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant docetaxel and doxorubicin chemotherapy: paradoxical features of the triple negative breast cancer

Bhumsuk Keam¹ , Seock-Ah Im^1,6 , Hee-Jun Kim¹ , Do-Youn Oh^1,6 , Jee Hyun Kim^1,6 , Se-Hoon Lee^1,6 , Eui Kyu Chie² , Wonshik Han³ , Dong-Wan Kim^1,6 , Woo Kyung Moon⁴ , Tae-You Kim^1,6 , In Ae Park⁵ , Dong-Young Noh³ , Dae Seog Heo^1,6 , Sung Whan Ha² and Yung-Jue Bang^1,6

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

³Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁴Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁵Department of Pathology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁶Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

author email corresponding author email

BMC Cancer 2007, 7:203doi:10.1186/1471-2407-7-203

Published:	1 November 2007

Abstract

Background

Prognostic factors in locally advanced breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy differ from those of early breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical significance of potential predictive and prognostic factors in breast cancer patients treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Methods

A total of 145 stage II and III breast cancer patients received neoadjuvant docetaxel/doxorubicin chemotherapy were enrolled in this study. We examined the clinical and biological factors (ER, PR, p53, c-erbB2, bcl-2, and Ki-67) by immunohistochemistry. We analyzed clinical outcome and their correlation with clinicopathologic parameters.

Results

Among the clinicopathologic parameters investigated, none of the marker was correlated with response rate (RR) except triple negative phenotype. Patients with triple negative phenotype showed higher RR (83.0% in triple negative vs. 62.2% in non-triple negative, p = 0.012) and pathologic complete RR (17.0% in triple negative vs. 3.1% in non-triple negative, p = 0.005). However, relapse free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly shorter in triple negative breast cancer patients (p < 0.001, p = 0.021, respectively). Low histologic grade, positive hormone receptors, positive bcl-2 and low level of Ki-67 were associated with prolonged RFS. In addition, positive ER and positive bcl-2 were associated with prolonged OS. In our homogeneous patient population, initial clinical stage reflects RFS and OS more precisely than pathologic stage. In multivariate analysis, initial clinical stage was the only significant independent prognostic factor to impact on OS (hazard ratio 3.597, p = 0.044).

Conclusion

Several molecular markers provided useful predictive and prognostic information in stage II and III breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant docetaxel/doxorubicin chemotherapy. Triple negative phenotype was associated with shorter survival, even though it was associated with a higher response rate to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.