The efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and survival in older patients with stages II to III triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract

Background. Breast cancer (BC) maintains the leading position in the structure of the morbidity and mortality from malignancies. Triple-negative BC (TNBC) is the most aggressive subtype among all types of BC. The adequate and timely initiation of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) determines the further prognosis of the disease in case of early and locally advanced TNBC. Patients over 60 years old are the special subgroup, but it has not been previously considered separately. Aim. To determine the efficacy of NAC and survival in elderly patients with stages II to III TNBC. Materials and methods. Since 2014, 92 patients with histologically verified early and locally advanced TNBC have received NAC, followed by surgery ± adjuvant therapy. NAC was conducted under the following scheme: cisplatin 75 mg/m2 on day 1, paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 on days 1, 8 and 15 of 28-day cycle, for six cycles. After the end of NAC, patients underwent surgery and a follow-up assessment of the degree of therapeutic pathomorphism in the primary tumor and regional lymph nodes. Further on, the correlation analysis was carried out between clinical characteristics and the degree of therapeutic pathomorphism. Results. We analyzed the data from the 92 patients, 22 (23.9%) patients of them were in older age group. At the time of disease diagnosis, the patients older than 60 years of age had a greater involvement of regional lymph nodes (N3: 40.9% vs. 20.0%, p