Changing the role of pCR in breast cancer treatment - an unjustifiable interpretation of a good prognostic factor as a “factor for a good prognosis“

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Abstract

Pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) of early breast cancer (EBC) has been recognized as a good prognostic factor in the treatment of breast cancer because of its significant correlation with long-term disease outcome. Based on this correlation, pCR has been accepted by health authorities (FDA, EMA) as a surrogate endpoint in clinical trials for accelerated drug approval. Moreover, in recent years, we have observed a tendency to treat pCR in routine clinical practice as a primary therapeutic target rather than just one of the pieces of information obtained from clinical trials. These trends in routine clinical practice are the result of recommendations in treatment guidelines, such as the ESMO recommendation “…to deliver all planned (neoadjuvant) treatment without unnecessary breaks, i.e. without dividing it into preoperative and postoperative periods, irrespective of the magnitude of tumor response”, because “…this will increase the probability of achieving pCR, which is a proven factor for a good prognosis…”. We hypothesize that the above recommendations and trends in routine clinical practice are the consequences of misunderstanding regarding the concept of pCR, which has led to a shift in its importance from a prognostic factor to a desired treatment outcome. The origin of this misunderstanding could be a strong subconscious incentive to achieve pCR, as patients who achieved pCR after NAST had a better long-term outcome compared with those who did not. In this paper, we attempt to prove our hypothesis. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the therapeutic effects of NAST and adjuvant systemic therapy (AST) in EBC to determine whether pCR, as a phenomenon that can only be achieved at NAST, improves prognosis per se. We used published papers as a source of data, which had a decisive influence on the formation of the modern attitude towards EBC therapy. We were unable to find any evidence supporting the use of pCR as a desired therapeutic goal because NAST (reinforced by pCR) was never demonstrated to be superior to AST in any context.

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Most cited references 82

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Pathological complete response and long-term clinical benefit in breast cancer: the CTNeoBC pooled analysis.

Patricia Cortazar, Lijun Zhang, Michael Untch … (2014)

Pathological complete response has been proposed as a surrogate endpoint for prediction of long-term clinical benefit, such as disease-free survival, event-free survival (EFS), and overall survival (OS). We had four key objectives: to establish the association between pathological complete response and EFS and OS, to establish the definition of pathological complete response that correlates best with long-term outcome, to identify the breast cancer subtypes in which pathological complete response is best correlated with long-term outcome, and to assess whether an increase in frequency of pathological complete response between treatment groups predicts improved EFS and OS. We searched PubMed, Embase, and Medline for clinical trials of neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer. To be eligible, studies had to meet three inclusion criteria: include at least 200 patients with primary breast cancer treated with preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery; have available data for pathological complete response, EFS, and OS; and have a median follow-up of at least 3 years. We compared the three most commonly used definitions of pathological complete response--ypT0 ypN0, ypT0/is ypN0, and ypT0/is--for their association with EFS and OS in a responder analysis. We assessed the association between pathological complete response and EFS and OS in various subgroups. Finally, we did a trial-level analysis to assess whether pathological complete response could be used as a surrogate endpoint for EFS or OS. We obtained data from 12 identified international trials and 11 955 patients were included in our responder analysis. Eradication of tumour from both breast and lymph nodes (ypT0 ypN0 or ypT0/is ypN0) was better associated with improved EFS (ypT0 ypN0: hazard ratio [HR] 0·44, 95% CI 0·39-0·51; ypT0/is ypN0: 0·48, 0·43-0·54) and OS (0·36, 0·30-0·44; 0·36, 0·31-0·42) than was tumour eradication from the breast alone (ypT0/is; EFS: HR 0·60, 95% CI 0·55-0·66; OS 0·51, 0·45-0·58). We used the ypT0/is ypN0 definition for all subsequent analyses. The association between pathological complete response and long-term outcomes was strongest in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (EFS: HR 0·24, 95% CI 0·18-0·33; OS: 0·16, 0·11-0·25) and in those with HER2-positive, hormone-receptor-negative tumours who received trastuzumab (EFS: 0·15, 0·09-0·27; OS: 0·08, 0·03, 0·22). In the trial-level analysis, we recorded little association between increases in frequency of pathological complete response and EFS (R(2)=0·03, 95% CI 0·00-0·25) and OS (R(2)=0·24, 0·00-0·70). Patients who attain pathological complete response defined as ypT0 ypN0 or ypT0/is ypN0 have improved survival. The prognostic value is greatest in aggressive tumour subtypes. Our pooled analysis could not validate pathological complete response as a surrogate endpoint for improved EFS and OS. US Food and Drug Administration. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Trastuzumab Emtansine for Residual Invasive HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Gunter von Minckwitz, Chiun-Sheng Huang, Max S Mano … (2018)

Patients who have residual invasive breast cancer after receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeted therapy have a worse prognosis than those who have no residual cancer. Trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), an antibody-drug conjugate of trastuzumab and the cytotoxic agent emtansine (DM1), a maytansine derivative and microtubule inhibitor, provides benefit in patients with metastatic breast cancer that was previously treated with chemotherapy plus HER2-targeted therapy.

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Early breast cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up†

F. Cardoso, S. Kyriakides, S. Ohno … (2019)

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Author and article information

Contributors

Nebojsa Ivanovic: URI : https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/2279080

Barbara Loboda: URI : https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/2285883

Simona Petricevic: URI : https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/2286483

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Front Oncol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Front Oncol

Journal ID (publisher-id): Front. Oncol.

Title: Frontiers in Oncology

Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.

ISSN (Electronic): 2234-943X

Publication date (Electronic): 18 July 2023

Publication date Collection: 2023

Volume: 13

Electronic Location Identifier: 1207948

Affiliations

[1] ¹ Department of Surgical Oncology, University Hospital Medical Center (UHMC) “Bezanijska kosa” , Belgrade, Serbia

[2] ² Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade , Belgrade, Serbia

[3] ³ Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Belgrade , Belgrade, Serbia

[4] ⁴ Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Clinical Centre of Serbia , Belgrade, Serbia

Author notes

Edited by: Serafin Morales Murillo, Hu Arnau De Vilanova, Spain

Reviewed by: Marzia Locatelli, European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Italy; Sungchan Gwark, Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea

*Correspondence: Nebojsa Ivanovic, ivanovicnebojsadr@ 123456gmail.com

Article

DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1207948

PMC ID: 10391828

SO-VID: 2df6ca8d-cab0-4c1f-bc25-4c93157aa74d

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

History

Date received : 18 April 2023

Date accepted : 03 July 2023

Page count

Figures: 0, Tables: 4, Equations: 0, References: 83, Pages: 11, Words: 5965

Custom metadata

section-in-acceptance Breast Cancer

ScienceOpen disciplines: Oncology & Radiotherapy

Keywords: early breast cancer,pathologic complete response,neoadjuvant systemic therapy,adjuvant systemic therapy,prognostic factor,treatment guidelines

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Oncology & Radiotherapy

Keywords: early breast cancer, pathologic complete response, neoadjuvant systemic therapy, adjuvant systemic therapy, prognostic factor, treatment guidelines

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