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Efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy stratified by age and the 21-gene recurrence score in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The 21-gene recurrence score (RS) can predict chemotherapy benefit in estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative (ER+/HER2-) early breast cancer patients. Age would influence the interaction between RS and chemotherapy effect. The current study aimed to determine RS thresholds which were predictive of chemotherapy benefit in young and old women, respectively.

Methods

Patients diagnosed with pN0-1, ER+/HER2- breast cancer between 2009 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Propensity score matching was performed according to chemotherapy usage. After stratifying patients with different cutoffs of age, the RS threshold indicating chemotherapy benefit in each age strata were determined by cox proportional hazard models.

Results

A total of 1227 patients were included. The median age was 58 years and the median RS was 24. After matching, the RS thresholds suggesting chemotherapy benefit varied with age. For patients ≤55 years, chemotherapy benefit was observed in those having RS > 25 (P = 0.03), with 4-year invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) of 97.0 and 89.3% in patients receiving chemotherapy or not. While patients derived no benefit from chemotherapy if they had RS ≤25 (P = 0.66, 4-year IDFS: 95.3% vs. 94.6%). For patients > 55 years, adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with better prognosis in those with RS > 36 (P = 0.014, 4-year IDFS: 94.7% vs. 76.2%), but not in those having RS ≤36 (P = 0.13, 4-year IDFS: 92.3% vs. 95.8%).

Conclusions

Old patients need higher RS thresholds to demonstrate the chemotherapy benefit. Further efforts are warranted to investigate the association between age and predictive RS thresholds.

SUBMITTER: Yu J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8207606 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Recurrence score (RS) could be used to predict clinical outcomes and chemotherapy efficacy in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative and lymph node-negative breast cancer. However, the clinical features and management of patients with an RS of 26-30 are not completely understood. In the present study, 783 patients with HR+/HER2-, lymph node-negative early breast cancer and RS ≥18 were included and categorized into RS=18-25 (47.8%), 26-30 (25.5%) or ≥31 (26.7%) groups. Clinicopathological characteristics, adjuvant chemotherapy usage and disease outcomes were compared. Alterations in the adjuvant chemotherapy recommendation after 21-gene RS testing were also analyzed. The results indicated that patients with RS=26-30 had higher progesterone receptor (PR) expression [odds ratio (OR)=2.84; P<0.001] and lower Ki-67 index (OR, 1.88; P=0.032) compared with patients with RS ≥31. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age ≤50 years (OR, 5.75; P=0.001) and luminal-B subtype (OR, 7.75; P<0.001) were factors that were independently associated with chemotherapy usage in the RS=26-30 group. Among 104 patients who were not recommended chemotherapy before 21-gene RS testing, the treatment decision for 52 patients was changed to recommend chemotherapy once an RS of 26-30 was identified. The patient adherence rate to the treatment recommendation was 95.0% (190/200). After a median follow-up of 21.5 months, 6 patients displayed disease recurrence in the RS=26-30 group, and there was no significant difference between patients receiving chemotherapy and patients not receiving chemotherapy. In conclusion, patients with RS=26-30 had tumors with higher PR expression and lower Ki-67 index compared with those of patients with RS ≥31. Age, luminal subtype and RS testing influenced chemotherapy usage in patients with RS=26-30; however, no significant benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy was observed in a short term of 2 years.