Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of dose-dense neoadjuvant chemotherapy (ddNACT) and conventional neoadjuvant chemotherapy (cNACT) for locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Methods PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and VIP databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing ddNACT regimen with cNACT regimen for breast cancer. The time limit for retrieval was from establishment to March 1st, 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literatures, extracted data and assessed risk bias of included studies; then, meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 15.0 software. Results A total of 13 RCTs were included, including 3 258 patients, of which 1 625 patients received ddNACT and 1 633 patients received cNACT. The results of meta-analysis showed that the ddNACT regimen could improve the pathological complete response rate (pCR, P<0.001), objective response rate (ORR, P<0.001), and disease free survival (DFS, P=0.037) as compared with the cNACT regimen, there was no significant difference in the overall survival (OS) between the two groups (P=0.098). The incidences of grade 3 or 4 oral stomatitis (P=0.005) and neurotoxicity (P<0.001) were higher and the incidence of grade 3 or 4 neutropenia was lower (P=0.025) in the patients with ddNACT regimen, there were no significant differences in grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia (P=0.152), grade 3 or 4 anemia (P=0.123), chemotherapy completion rate (P=0.161) and breast conservative surgery rate (P=0.186) between the two groups. Patients with hormone receptor (HR) negative (HR–) were more likely to get pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P<0.001). ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that the use of anthracycline/taxane-based ddNACT regimen in LABC patients can improve the pCR, ORR, and DFS as compared with cNACT regimen. The pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the patients with HR– is higher than that with HR+. Prophylactic use of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor could significantly reduce the incidence of neutropenia, and most patients are tolerant to ddNACT regimen, 2 regimens have similar chemotherapy completion rates.
Pancoast tumor, a special subtype of non-small cell lung cancer originating from the apex of the upper lobe, is characterized by its complex clinical manifestations and high treatment difficulty due to its unique anatomical location, often leading to a relatively poor prognosis. Currently, guidelines recommend neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery as the standard treatment strategy, which has significantly improved overall patient survival compared to previous approaches. However, this regimen has limitations, including significant toxicity, increased surgical complexity, and a lack of individualized treatment options. In recent years, new strategies such as neoadjuvant targeted therapy and immunechemotherapy combinations have shown higher pathological response rates and manageable safety profiles in clinical studies, offering new directions for treating Pancoast tumors. This case report describes a 56-year-old female diagnosed with stage ⅢC Pancoast tumor harboring co-mutations in EGFR and ERBB2 and high PD-L1 expression. Through dynamic biopsy-guided precise targeted therapy, a neoadjuvant strategy incorporating immunotherapy and chemotherapy, and successful surgical intervention, pathological complete response was achieved. This case highlights the critical value of a multidisciplinary team approach and precision medicine in the management of Pancoast tumor.
ObjectiveTo summarize the complete response (CR, which referred to the imaging level) achieved by conversion therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the current researches, and explore the further therapy strategies and outcomes for patients acquired CR. MethodThe domestic and foreign literature on the research of CR achieved by conversion therapy for HCC was reviewed and summarized. ResultsWith the great progress of conversion therapy such as local therapy, systemic therapy, and local therapy in combination with systemic therapy for HCC, the proportion of the CR was increasing after conversion therapy. For the patients who achieved CR after conversion therapy, the surgical resection, liver transplantation, follow-up observation, etc. could be selected and showed a survival benefit. Conclusions From the opinion summarized in this review, with the development of targeted therapy and immunotherapy, as well as the new anti-tumor drugs, a growing number of conversion therapeutic schedules could be provided, CR rate was increasing. At present, for patients who have achieved CR after conversion therapy, surgical or non-surgical treatment can be chosen. However, there is no authoritative conclusion on which therapy method can benefit patients more. The current strategy is to perform personalized treatment plan based on the individual situation of patient, in order to achieve better survival benefit for patient.
ObjectiveTo analyze the association between nutritional and immune-related laboratory indices and pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer patients and focused on constructing a combination of laboratory indices to serve as a clinical predictor of pCR after NAC in breast cancer. MethodsRetrospectively collected the pre-NAC laboratory indices [albumin (ALB), total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein A- Ⅰ, apolipoprotein B, white blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte (MON), and platelet ] and clinicopathologic data of 310 patients with invasive breast cancer who had received NAC in the Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, from September 1, 2020 to October 31, 2022. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the correlation between laboratory indices and post-NAC pCR. The combinations of laboratory indices were constructed by simple mathematical operation. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the efficacy of different combinations of laboratory indices in predicting pCR and to determine the optimal combination of liboratory indices. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analysis the relevance between clinicopathologic features and post-NAC pCR in breast cancer patients and to determine the independent predictor of post-NAC pCR. ResultsAmong the 310 patients, 49.4% (153/310) of them achieved pCR after NAC. Logistic regression analysis revealed that ALB (Z=5.203, P<0.001) and HDL-C (Z=2.129, P=0.033) were positively correlated with post-NAC pCR, while MON (Z=–4.883, P<0.001) was negatively correlated with post-NAC pCR. The AUC analysis of 6 different combinations of laboratory indices showed that the ALB/MON combination (the optimal combination of liboratory indices) had the highest predictive performance (median AUC=0.708) and was determined to be the neoadjuvant therapy predictive index (NTPI). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that estrogen receptor (Z=–3.273, P=0.001), human epidermal growth factor 2 (Z=7.041, P<0.001), Ki-67 (Z=2.457, P=0.014), and NTPI (Z=4.661, P<0.001) were the independent predictors for post-NAC pCR. ConclusionNTPI could serve as a predictive index for post-NAC pCR in patients with breast cancer.
ObjectiveTo investigate the effect and predictive value of systemic inflammatory markers on pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). MethodsThe clinicopathologic data of female patients with LABC who received NACT and radical surgical resection in the Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from February 2019 to February 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The factors affecting pCR after NACT were analyzed by the multivariate logistic regression and the prediction model was established. The efficiency of the prediction model was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the ROC curve (AUC). ResultsA total of 98 patients were gathered, of which 29 obtained pCR, with a pCR rate of 29.6%. The multivariate analysis of binary logistic regression showed that the patients with non-menopausal status, negative estrogen receptor (ER), chemotherapy+targeted therapy, and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) <532.70 (optimal critical value) were more likely to obtain pCR after NACT (P<0.05). The prediction model was established according to logistic regression analysis: Logit (P)=0.697–2.974×(menopausal status)–1.932×(ER status)+3.277×(chemotherapy regimen)–2.652×(SII). The AUC (95%CI) of the prediction model was 0.914 (0.840, 0.961), P<0.001. ConclusionsIt is not found that other inflammatory indicators such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio are associated with pCR after NACT. But SII is an important predictor of pCR after NACT for LABC and has a good predictive efficiency.
ObjectiveTo observe the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer, and to analyze the cause of the prediction error.MethodsData from 157 breast cancer patients who underwent NAC before surgery in Mianyang Central Hospital from January 2017 to January 2019 were analyzed. MRI parameters before and after NAC and pCR conditions were collected to analyze the parameters that produced false positives and false negatives.ResultsOf the 157 patients, 37 (23.6%) achieved pCR after NAC, and 33 (21.0%) achieved radiation complete remission (rCR) after NAC. The accuracy of MRI prediction was 70.7% (111/157), the sensitivity was 82.5% (99/120), and the specificity was 32.4% (12/37). A total of 25 cases did not achieve rCR, but postoperative evaluation achieved pCR (false positive), 21 cases achieved rCR, but postoperative evaluation did not achieve pCR (false negative). Diameter of tumor, peritumoral oedema, and background parenchymal enhancement were associated with MRI false positive prediction (P<0.05); gland density and tumor rim enhancement were associated with MRI false negative prediction (P<0.05).ConclusionMRI can be used as an important method to predict pCR after NAC in breast cancer patients, and its accuracy may be related to diameter of tumor, peritumoral oedema, background parenchymal enhancement, gland density, and tumor rim enhancement.
With the rising incidence of breast cancer among women, neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is becoming increasingly crucial as a preoperative treatment modality, enabling tumor downstaging and volume reduction. However, its efficacy varies significantly among patients, underscoring the importance of predicting pathological complete response (pCR) following NAC. Early research relied on statistical methods to integrate clinical data for predicting treatment outcomes. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), traditional machine learning approaches were subsequently employed for efficacy prediction. Deep learning emerged to dominate this field, and demonstrated the capability to automatically extract imaging features and integrate multimodal data for pCR prediction. This review comprehensively examined the applications and limitations of these three methodologies in predicting breast cancer pCR. Future efforts must prioritize the development of superior predictive models to achieve precise predictions, integrate them into clinical workflows, enhance patient care, and ultimately improve therapeutic outcomes and quality of life.
Objective To explore the accuracy of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting pathological complete remission (pCR) in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant therapy (NAC). Methods The clinicopathological data of 245 patients with invasive breast cancer who had completed the surgical resection after NAC in the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from March 2020 to April 2022 were collected retrospectively. According to the results of hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) detected by immunohistochemistry, all patients were divided into four subgroups: HR+/HER2–, HR+/HER2+, HR–/HER2+ and HR–/HER2–. The value of MRI in evaluating the efficacy of NAC was analyzed by comparing the postoperative pathological results as the gold standard with the residual tumor size assessed by preoperative MRI. Meanwhile, the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of pCR predicted by the evaluation results of enhanced MRI were analyzed, and further analyzed its predictive value for pCR of different subtypes of breast cancer. Results There were 88 cases (35.9%) achieved radiological complete response (rCR) and 106 cases (43.3%) achieved pCR in 245 patients. Enhanced MRI in assessing the size of residual tumors overestimated and underestimated 12.7% (31/245) and 9.8% (24/245) of patients, respectively. When setting rCR as the MRI assessment index the specificity, sensitivity and PPV were 84.2% (117/139), 62.3% (66/106) and 75.0% (66/88), respectively. When setting near-rCR as the MRI assessment index the specificity, sensitivity and PPV were 70.5% (98/139), 81.1% (86/106), and 67.7% (86/127), respectively. The positive predictive value of both MRI-rCR and MRI-near-rCR in evaluating pCR of each subtype subgroup of breast cancer was the highest in the HR–/HER2+ subgroup (91.7% and 83.3%, respectively). In each subgroup, compared with rCR, the specificity of near-rCR to predict pCR decreased to different degrees, while the sensitivity increased to different degrees. Conclusions Breast contrast-enhanced MRI can more accurately evaluate the efficacy of localized breast lesions after NAC, and can also more accurately predict the breast pCR after NAC. The HR–/HER2+ subgroup may be a potentially predictable population with pCR exemption from breast surgery. However, the accuracy of the evaluation of pCR by breast enhancement MRI in HR+/HER2– subgroup is low.
Objective
To summarize the progress of biological indexes which could predict the efficiency of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Methods
Various related researches were collected to make a review.
Results
Many indexes linked to the efficiency of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer according to several studies. According to many studies, indexes such as human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) gene, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), Ki-67, P53 gene, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet level, and mean platelet volume (MPV) may have association with the outcome of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in treatment of breast cancer, and these factors maybe individual biomarkers to predict the efficiency of the treatment, but no coincident conclusion has been reached for these indexes.
Conclusion
The value of these indexes that predict the efficiency of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is not sure, further study need to be done to solve this topic.
ObjectiveTo analyze the factors influencing axillary pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) and to provide the possibility of exempting axillary surgery for patients with better pathological efficacy of primary breast lesions after NAT. MethodsAccording to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the patients with breast cancer admitted to the Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were diagnosed with ipsilateral axillary lymph node metastasis of breast cancer and the NAT cycle was completed according to standards. All patients underwent axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) after NAT. The therapeutic effect of primary breast lesions was evaluated by Miller-Payne (MP) grading system. The axillary pCR was judged according to whether there was residual positive axillary lymph nodes after ALND. The unvariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to analyze the risk factors affecting the axillary pCR. At the same time, the possibility of exempting axillary surgery after NAT in the MP grade 5 or in whom without ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) was evaluated. The ALND was considered to exempt when the negative predictive value was 90% or more and false negative <10% or almost same. ResultsA total of 111 eligible patients with breast cancer were gathered in the study, 64 of whom with axillary pCR. There were 43 patients of MP grade 5 without DCIS after NAT, 41 of whom were axillary pCR. The univariate analysis results showed that the estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor statuses, molecular type, NAT regimen, and MP grade were associated with the axillary pCR after NAT, then the logistic regression multivariate analysis results showed that the MP grade ≤3 and MP grade 4 decreased the probability of axillary pCR as compared with the MP grade 5 [OR=0.105, 95%CI (0.028, 0.391), P=0.001; OR=0.045, 95%CI (0.012, 0.172), P<0.001]. There were 51 patients of MP grade 5 after NAT, 46 of whom were axillary pCR. The negative predictive value and the false negative rate of MP grade 5 on predicting the postoperative residual axillary lymph nodes were 90.2% [95%CI (81.7%, 98.6%)] and 10.6% [95%CI (1.5%, 19.8%)], respectively, which of MP grade 5 without DCIS were 95.3% [95%CI (88.8%, 101.9%)] and 4.3% [95%CI (–1.7%, 10.2%)] , respectively. ConclusionsThe probability of axillary pCR for the patient with higher MP grade of breast primary after NAT is higher. It is probable of exempting axillary surgery when MP grade is 5 after NAT.
