Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Oct;32(11):8160-8167.
doi: 10.1245/s10434-025-18028-8. Epub 2025 Aug 5.

Impact of Pathologic Complete Response on Local-Regional Recurrence and Survival in Patients Undergoing Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy and Breast-Conserving Surgery

Victoria Huynh  1 , Alexa Glencer  2 , Min Yi  1 , Emma Wingate  1 , Hannah Wingate  1 , Naid Allassan  1 , Sarah Alameddine  3 , Puneet Singh  1 , Henry M Kuerer  1 , Kelly K Hunt  1 , Ana Paula Refinetti  4
Affiliations

Impact of Pathologic Complete Response on Local-Regional Recurrence and Survival in Patients Undergoing Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy and Breast-Conserving Surgery

Victoria Huynh et al. Ann Surg Oncol. 2025 Oct.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to compare oncologic outcomes between patients achieving pathologic complete response (pCR) versus residual disease (RD) after receiving neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) and breast-conserving surgery (BCS).

Methods: Our institutional database was used to identify patients treated with NST and BCS for cT1-3N0 invasive breast cancer. Overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), local-regional recurrence-free survival (LRRFS), and distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) rates were compared between patients with pCR and RD. Multivariable analysis was used to identify factors associated with oncologic outcomes.

Results: Between 1999 and 2015, 732 patients received NST and BCS, with a median follow-up period of 7.1 years. Median age at diagnosis was 52 years. Most patients had clinical T2 (78.8%). pCR differed significantly by tumor subtype, with larger proportions of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+; 42.9%) and triple-negative (46.2%) breast cancer (TNBC) achieving pCR compared with hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2-negative (HER2-; 15%) disease (p < 0.0001). Patients achieving pCR had significantly improved 5-year OS (p = 0.002), DSS (p = 0.02), and DRFS (p = 0.01) compared with those with RD. There were no significant differences in LRRFS between patients with pCR and RD, and the 5-year LRR rates were low, except in patients with TNBC and RD. On multivariate analyses, oncologic outcomes differed significantly by tumor subtype, with TNBC subtype associated with worse OS, DSS, LRRFS, and DRFS.

Conclusions: pCR is associated with improved OS, DSS, and DFRS. LRR rates were low, regardless of pCR or RD, in all tumor subtypes except TNBC.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Breast-conserving surgery; Local-regional recurrence; Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Outcomes; Pathologic complete response; Survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Henry M. Kuerer reports receiving personal fees from the NEJM Group Inc., UpToDate Inc., and McGraw-Hill Professional Inc., outside the submitted work. Kelly K. Hunt reports personal fees from ArmadaHealth and AstraZeneca (Medical Advisory Board) and Springer Nature (Editor-in-Chief Current Breast Cancer Reports), as well as research funding, paid to MD Anderson Cancer Center, from Cairn Surgical, Eli Lilly & Co. and Lumicell. Victoria Huynh, Alexa Glencer, Min Yi, Emma Wingate, Hannah Wingate, Naid Allassan, Sarah Alameddine, Puneet Singh, and Ana Paula Refinetti have no disclosures to declare that may be relevant to the contents of this study.

References

    1. Fisher B, Bryant J, Wolmark N, et al. Effect of preoperative chemotherapy on the outcome of women with operable breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 1998;16(8):2672–85. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rastogi P, Anderson SJ, Bear HD, et al. Preoperative chemotherapy: updates of National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Protocols B-18 and B-27. J Clin Oncol. 2008;26(5):778–85. - DOI - PubMed
    1. van der Hage JA, van de Velde CJ, Julien JP, Tubiana-Hulin M, Vandervelden C, Duchateau L. Preoperative chemotherapy in primary operable breast cancer: results from the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer trial 10902. J Clin Oncol. 2001;19(22):4224–37. - DOI - PubMed
    1. van Nes JG, Putter H, Julien JP, et al. Preoperative chemotherapy is safe in early breast cancer, even after 10 years of follow-up; clinical and translational results from the EORTC trial 10902. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009;115(1):101–13. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fisher B, Brown A, Mamounas E, et al. Effect of preoperative chemotherapy on local-regional disease in women with operable breast cancer: findings from National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-18. J Clin Oncol. 1997;15(7):2483–93. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources