Correlation Between Pathologic Complete Response in the Breast and Absence of Axillary Lymph Node Metastases After Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy

This study examined pathological complete response (pCR) in the breast and the axilla in 4084 patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). The data was derived from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Overall breast pCR rate of 24.1% was observed in cT1-3N0-1 breast cancer patients treated with NACT. In patients who achieved breast pCR, 97.7% of clinically node negative (cN0) patients had no tumour in the lymph nodes (ypN0) post-NACT. Furthermore, 45% of cN1 patients had converted to ypN0 after NACT. The study findings support the need for future clinical trials to investigate potential de-escalation of axillary surgery in this patient cohort when image-guided tissue sampling identifies a breast pCR.

Classifications: Adjuvant & Neoadjuvant Treatment

Keywords: Systemic therapy Axilla Pathological Response