Abstract P2-16-36: Survival benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy versus adjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive early breast cancer: A propensity score-weighted analysis
Authors: Laas Enora , Bresset Arnaud , Feron Jean Guillaume , Pierga Jean-Yves , Coussy Florence , Bellesoeur Audrey , Grandal Beatriz , De Guillebon Eléonore , Rozette Sonia , Evrevin Clemence , Gaillard Thomas , Lae Marick , Hamy Anne Sophie , Reyal Fabien 
Published: March 2020

INTRODUCTION: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is increasingly being used for locally advanced breast cancers (BCs) or aggressive BC tumors. However, no survival benefit of the neoadjuvant approach over receiving chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting has been proven so far in HER2-positive early breast cancer (BC) patients. The objective of this study was to compare the prognosis of patients with an HER2-positive BC treated with NAC to patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy (AC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively identified in our institutional database 203 patients with HER2-positive BCs treated with NAC plus trastuzumab and 701 patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. As the treatment was not randomly allocated, we used a propensity score with an Inverse probability of received treatment weighting (IPTW) to generate a pseudo-population in which each covariate combination was balanced between treatment groups. The disease free (DFS), distant metastasis free (DMFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated using a weighted Cox model. The interactions with poor prognosis factors (initial tumour size, tumour grade, hormone receptor status and initial clinical nodal status) were tested to evaluate the effect of the NAC in high-risk tumours. RESULTS: By construction, patients, tumor characteristics and trastuzumab use were similar between the population treated with NAC and the population treated with adjuvant CT. No difference was found regarding DFS (p=0.3) neither DMFS (p=0.4) in the global population. However, there was a significant interaction effect between the strategy and the initial clinical nodal status, with a DFS benefit of NAC over AC in the node-positive group (HR 0.53 CI95% [0.31- 0.89]), as well as for DMFS (HR 0.39 95%CI [0.20-0.77]). We found a significant benefit in OS with the neoadjuvant strategy when compared with the adjuvant strategy (HR = 0.12 95%CI [0.03-0.47], p=0.002) and this difference was significant irrespective of tumour size, initial clinical nodal status and hormone receptor status. CONCLUSION: In patients with HER2-positive BCs, receiving NAC is associated with an improved OS when compared with chemotherapy received in the adjuvant setting. Our results support the fact that NAC should become a standard of care in HER2-positive tumours.

Citation Format: Enora Laas, Arnaud Bresset, Jean Guillaume Feron, Jean-Yves Pierga, Florence Coussy, Audrey Bellesoeur, Beatriz Grandal, Eléonore De Guillebon, Sonia Rozette, Clemence Evrevin, Thomas Gaillard, Marick Lae, Anne Sophie Hamy, Fabien Reyal. Survival benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy versus adjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive early breast cancer: A propensity score-weighted analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-16-36.