Lucci, Anthony

Importance Neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) has been associated with pathologic complete response (pCR) in up to 60% of breast cancers (BCs). The findings of this trial question the necessity of surgery. Objective To report preplanned 5-year efficacy outcomes evaluating radiotherapy alone without breast surgery in patients selected with image-guided vacuum assisted biopsy (VAB). Design, Setting, and Participants This single-arm, prospective, phase 2 nonrandomized clinical trial was conducted at 7 US medical centers and included women 40 years or older with cT1-2N0-1M0 ERBB2 -positive (formerly HER2 -positive) or triple-negative invasive BC who showed residual breast lesions after NST of less than 2 cm on imaging. Enrollment was from March 6, 2017, to November 9, 2021. Data analysis was from October to December 2024. Intervention Image-guided VAB of the tumor bed (9G with a minimum of 12 cores) was performed after standard NST. Patients with clinically node-negative disease at diagnosis and no residual cancer in the breast on post-NST VAB underwent whole-breast radiotherapy with a boost without breast or axillary surgery. Patients with initial documented nodal disease and a breast pCR on VAB underwent targeted axillary dissection, while those with residual cancer when undergoing VAB had standard breast and axillary surgery. Patients were monitored with physical examinations and mammography every 6 months. Main Outcome Measures The primary outcome was ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence. Results Fifty patients (median [IQR] age, 62 [55-77] years) were enrolled and underwent post-NST VAB. Twenty-nine (58%) and 21 (42%) patients had ERBB2 -positive and triple-negative invasive BC, respectively. Breast pCR on VAB was identified in 31 patients (62%; 95% CI, 47.2%-75.34%), and axillary pCR was identified among all 8 patients with initial nodal metastases and breast pCR on VAB who underwent targeted axillary dissection. At a median follow-up of 55.4 (IQR, 44.0-63.5) months, the ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence rate was 0%, and disease-free and overall survival rates were 100% for patients without breast surgery. Conclusions and Relevance The results of this nonrandomized clinical trial that reported preplanned 5-year outcomes suggest that omission of breast surgery in select patients after NST may be feasible, with no recurrences seen. More confirmatory studies are necessary before this new approach alters surgical practice. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02945579

ImportancePatients should have an active role in decisions about pursuing or forgoing specific therapies in treatment de-escalation trials.ObjectiveTo evaluate longitudinal patient-reported outcomes (PROs) encompassing decisional comfort and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among patients who elected to enroll in a clinical trial evaluating radiotherapy alone, without breast surgery, for invasive breast cancers with exceptional response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST).Design, Setting, and ParticipantsProspective, single-group, phase 2 clinical trial at 7 US medical centers. Women aged 40 years or older with invasive cT1-2 N0-1 M0 triple-negative or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ERBB2)–positive breast cancer with no pathologic evidence of residual disease following standard NST enrolled from March 6, 2017, to November 9, 2021. Validated PRO measures were administered at baseline and 6, 12, and 36 months post-radiotherapy. Data were analyzed from January to February 2023.InterventionsPRO measures included the Decision Regret Scale (DRS), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy—Lymphedema (FACT-B+4), and Breast Cancer Treatment Outcomes Scale (BCTOS).Main Outcomes and MeasuresChanges in PRO measure scores and subscores over time.ResultsAmong 31 patients, the median (IQR) age was 61 (56-66) years, 26 (84%) were White, and 26 (84%) were non-Hispanic. A total of 15 (48%) had triple-negative disease and 16 (52%) had ERBB2-positive disease. Decisional comfort was high at baseline (median [IQR] DRS score 10 [0-25] on a 0-100 scale, with higher scores indicating higher decisional regret) and significantly increased over time (median [IQR] DRS score at 36 months, 0 [0-20]; P < .001). HRQOL was relatively high at baseline (median [IQR] FACT-B composite score 121 [111-134] on a 0-148 scale, with higher scores indicating higher HRQOL) and significantly increased over time (median [IQR] FACT-B score at 36 months, 128 [116-137]; P = .04). Perceived differences between the affected breast and contralateral breast were minimal at baseline (median [IQR] BCTOS score 1.05 [1.00-1.23] on a 1-4 scale, with higher scores indicating greater differences) and increased significantly over time (median [IQR] BCTOS score at 36 months, 1.36 [1.18-1.64]; P < .001). At 36 months postradiotherapy, the cosmetic subscore was 0.45 points higher than baseline (95% CI, 0.16-0.74; P = .001), whereas function, pain, and edema subscores were not significantly different than baseline.Conclusions and RelevanceIn this nonrandomized phase 2 clinical trial, analysis of PROs demonstrated an overall positive experience for trial participants, with longitudinal improvements in decisional comfort and overall HRQOL over time and minimal lasting adverse effects of therapy.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02945579

Abstract Purpose: The stage IB designation was added to the AJCC 7th edition staging system to denote micrometastasis in patients with T1 tumors. We have previously examined this group and found that receptor status and nuclear grade were better survival discriminates than the presence of micrometastases. The current study was undertaken to validate this finding in a larger cohort from the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z0010 study. Methods: Clinicopathologic and outcomes data from patients enrolled on ACOSOG Z0010 were recorded. All patients underwent breast conserving surgery, sentinel lymph node biopsy and whole breast radiation for clinical T1-2, N0 breast cancer. Sentinel lymph nodes were evaluated by H&E locally and if negative, by immunohistochemistry (IHC) at a central laboratory. Patients were staged according to the 7th edition AJCC system and recurrence-free (RFS), disease-specific (DSS) and overall survival (OS) were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Results: There were 5210 eligible and evaluable patients enrolled on ACOSOG Z0010. AJCC stage distribution was known in 4590 and included: 2849 (62.0%) stage IA, 376 (8.2%) stage IB, 878 (19.1%) stage IIA, 322 (7.0%) stage IIB, and 170 (3.7%) stage III. Median follow-up for the cohort was 9.0 years (range 0–12.6). Five and 10-year RFS, DSS and OS rates for patients with stage IA versus IB disease are shown in table 1. There were no significant differences between groups. When all stage I patients (stage IA and IB) were evaluated by ER status (positive vs negative) or grade (grade 1 vs 2 vs 3), these biologic factors were able to significantly discriminate patients with respect to RFS, DSS and OS (table 2). Conclusion: Differentiating patients with micrometastases (stage IB) from node negative patients (stage IA) does not stratify patients well with respect to survival. Biologic factors including ER status and grade are better discriminants of survival than the presence of small volume nodal metastases in patients with early stage breast cancer. Breast cancer staging should include biologic factors from the primary tumor. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-01-06.

Abstract Purpose: Emerging data from cooperative group trials suggests that not all patients with a positive SLN require completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). The controversy regarding who will benefit from additional nodal clearance continues, suggesting a need for improved tools to predict non-SLN involvement. We hypothesized that the size of a SLN metastasis evaluated as a continuous variable would be an important predictor of non-SLN involvement. The goal of this study was to determine clinicopathologic factors including SLN metastasis size that predicted non-SLN involvement and to use these factors to construct an improved predictive nomogram. Methods: Using a prospective database, we identified 509 patients with invasive breast cancer from 1996 - 2007 with a positive SLN who underwent ALND. Patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy were excluded. Clinicopathologic data including age, primary tumor size, presence of multifocal disease, histology (invasive ductal vs. invasive lobular vs. mixed invasive), tumor grade, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2/neu status, presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI), the number of SLNs identified, number of positive SLNs, the maximum SLN metastasis size and the presence of extranodal extension were recorded. For SLNs described only as containing isolated tumor cells, size was recorded as 0.1 mm. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors predictive of positive non-SLNs. Using these variables, a nomogram was constructed and subsequently validated using an external cohort of 464 patients. Results: On univariate analysis, the following factors were predictive of positive non-SLNs: number of SLN identified (p<.001), number of positive SLN (p<.001), maximum SLN metastasis size (p<.001), extranodal extension (p<.001), primary tumor size (p=.001), LVI (p=.019) and histology (p=.034). On multivariate analysis, all factors remained significant at the 5% level except LVI. A nomogram was created using these variables. When applied to an external cohort, the nomogram was accurate and discriminating with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of .73 (95% CI: .68 - .77). Conclusions: SLN metastasis size is predictive for identifying additional disease in the axilla. These data have been incorporated into a nomogram that accurately predicts the likelihood of having additional, non-SLN metastasis suggesting that routine reporting of the SLN metastasis size would assist with clinical decision making regarding the need to perform a completion ALND. Figures available in online version. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr PD06-08.