Performance of Mid-Treatment Breast Ultrasound and Axillary Ultrasound in Predicting Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy by Breast Cancer Subtype

Background.

The primary objective was to determine whether mid-treatment ultrasound measurements of index breast tumors and index axillary nodes of different cancer subtypes associate with residual cancer burden (RCB).

Methods.

Patients with invasive breast cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy and had pre-treatment and mid-treatment breast and axillary ultrasound were included in this single-institution, retrospective cohort study. Linear regression analysis assessed associations between RCB with (a) change in index breast tumor size, (b) change in index node size, and (c) absolute number of abnormal nodes at mid-treatment. Multivariate linear regression was used to calculate best-fit models for RCB.

Results.

One hundred fifty-nine patients (68 triple negative breast cancer [TNBC], 45 hormone receptor [HR]+/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 [HER2]–, and 46 HR–/HER2+) were included. Median age at diagnosis was 50 years, range 30–76. Median tumor size was 3.4 cm, range 0.9–10.4. Pathological complete response/RCB-I rates were 36.8% (25/68) for TNBC patients, 24.4% (11/45) for HR+/HER2– patients, and 71.7% (33/46) for HR–/HER2+ patients. Linear regression analyses demonstrated associations between percent change in tumor ultrasound measurements at mid-treatment with RCB index score in TNBC and HR+/HER2– (p < .05) but not in HR–/HER2+ (p > .05) tumors and an association between axillary ultrasound assessment of number of abnormal nodes at mid-treatment with RCB index score across all subtypes (p < .05).

Conclusion.

Performance characteristics of breast ultrasound associated with RCB vary by cancer subtype, whereas the performance characteristics of axillary ultrasound associated with RCB are consistent across cancer subtype. Breast and axillary ultrasound may be valuable in monitoring response to neoadjuvant therapy. The Oncologist 2017;22:1–8

Implications for Practice: The differential performance characteristics of breast ultrasound by molecular subtype and the consistent performance characteristics of axillary ultrasound across molecular subtypes can have clinical utility in monitoring response to neoadjuvant therapy.

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