Taxanes-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced nonmetastatic breast cancer

e12033 Background: Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer for any South Asian population and majority of the patients present with locally advanced or metastatic disease. We report on response and survival of primary locally advanced non-metastatic breast cancer in women treated with neoadjuvant Adriamycin/Taxanes (AT) based regimens at our institute. Methods: Between 1995 to 2009 the hospital information system identified 517 women with pathologically confirmed locally advanced breast cancer. All patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy with AT based regimen followed by surgery. Median age was 43 years (range 17-71 years). AJCC stage; stage II 54% and stage III 46% of the patients. Axillary nodes were palpable in 72% of the patients at presentation. Histological sub-types; infiltrating ductal carcinoma 95%, infiltrating lobular carcinoma 3% and others 2% respectively. Pathological grade was I/II in 44% and grade III 56% of the patients. ER, PR, and Her2-neu receptors were positive in 44%, 40% and 24% of the patients respectively. Twenty one percent of the patients had triple negative breast cancer. Post operative radiotherapy was delivered to 94% of the patients. Patients with positive ER/PR receptors also received hormonal manipulation. Results: Following neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, pathological response was; complete response (CR) 13.5%, partial response 21%, stable disease 52% and progressive disease in 13% of the patients respectively. Breast conservation was possible in 36% of the patients. The 5 year disease free survival in patients with and without CR was 81% and 36% respectively. On multivariate analysis, T stage (p = 0.001) and response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.001) were found to be independent predictors for disease free survival. Conclusions: Pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a predictor of long term survival. Chemotherapy regimens with high response rates merit evaluation in randomized trials to improve outcome in locally advanced breast cancer.