Nonmass enhancement extension to the nipple at breast MRI has a high positive predictive value for tumor involvement of the nipple, a known contraindication for nipple-sparing mastectomy. Background Although nonmass enhancement (NME) extension to the nipple at preoperative MRI frequently leads to sacrifice of the nipple-areolar complex (NAC), its correlation with pathologically conf...

This study aimed to determine whether post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) is beneficial for the prognosis of patients who achieved pathologic complete response (pCR), or who had minimal residual disease, after undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Patients who underwent a total mastectomy between 2006 and 2018, after NAC, were included. Patients who did not receive PMRT were matched using 1:3 propensity score matching (PSM). Kaplan–Meier survival curves were used to compare locoregional recurrence-free survival (LRRFS) and overall survival (OS). A total of 368 patients were included after 1:3 PSM. PMRT improved the LRRFS (p = 0.016) and OS (p = 0.017) rates of patients who underwent NAC. However, PMRT did not affect the prognosis of patients with pCR (LRRFS: p = 0.999; OS: p = 0.453). In addition, PMRT had a limited effect on LRRFS and OS in patients who responded well to NAC, with a neoadjuvant response index (NRI) value of 0.7–1.0 (LRRFS: p = 0.568; OS: p = 0.875). PMRT improved the OS of patients with a large residual tumor burden, such as nodal metastases or pathologic stage II/III. The benefits of PMRT vary depending on the patients’ response to NAC, although PMRT is useful for treating patients who underwent NAC. PMRT can be omitted, not only in patients with pCR, but also in good responders with an NRI value of 0.7–1.0.

We assessed the impact of 21-gene Recurrence Score (RS) assay on chemotherapy decision-making according to binary clinical risk stratification in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative early breast cancer. We included patients with tumors measuring 1–5 cm, N0-1, and HR+/HER2- breast cancer who underwent surgery followed by adjuvant treatment. The clinical risk was determined by a modified version of Adjuvant! Online. We performed propensity score matching (PSM) according to the application of 21-gene RS separately in the low and high clinical risk groups. Before PSM, 342 (39.0%) of 878 patients were classified as having high clinical risk. In the high clinical risk group, 21-gene RS showed a significantly reduced chemotherapy rate of 39.3%, without increasing the recurrence. After PSM, the 21-gene RS application significantly reduced chemotherapy rate by 34.0% in 200 patients with high clinical risk (21-gene RS application, 32.0% vs. no 21-gene RS application, 66.0%, p < 0.001). There was also no significant difference in RFS according to 21-gene RS status in the high clinical risk group (log-rank test, p = 0.467). These results support the usefulness of the 21-gene RS to reduce the chemotherapy rate without adversely affecting prognosis in a high clinical risk group.

Bae SJ, et al. J Breast Cancer. 2022 Oct;25:e44. https://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2022.25.e44

Background: Previous clinical trials have diminished the significance of lymph node (LN) metastasis and axillary surgery in breast cancer, particularly in cN0, postmenopausal estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative patients undergoing breast-conserving treatment (BCT). We assessed the replacement of axillary surgery with preoperative imaging modalities by analyzing the proportion of high nodal burden (HNB) patients with ≥3 LN metastases in these patients. Methods: We retrospectively identified 333 cN0, postmenopausal ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer patients who underwent BCT in two hospitals between January 2003 and December 2017. The proportion of LN metastasis patients and the number of metastatic LN were investigated. Risk factors of LN metastasis were analyzed and recurrence-free survival (RFS) was compared. Results: Axillary surgery confirmed LN metastasis in 81 (24.3%) of the cN0 patients. The clinical tumor size (cT) and age were factors associated with LN metastasis [cT: odds ratio (OR), 2.92, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.69–5.05, P<0.001; age: OR, 0.33, 95% CI: 0.11–0.99, P=0.048]. However, HNB patients with ≥3 LN metastases were 15 (4.5%) of all the patients. There was statistically significant difference in the incidence of HNB between patients with cT1 tumors (3.6%) and those with cT2 tumors (7.4%) (P<0.001). Conclusions: In cN0, postmenopausal ER-positive/HER2-negative patients who underwent BCT, patients with cT1 tumors had lower rate of LN metastasis, and there were fewer instances of HNB. Therefore, in these patients, omission of axillary surgery including SLNB can be carefully considered.