PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - MIGLIETTA, LOREDANA
AU  - VANELLA, PAOLA
AU  - CANOBBIO, LUCIANO
AU  - PARODI, MARIA ANGELA
AU  - GUGLIELMINI, PAMELA
AU  - BOCCARDO, FRANCESCO
TI  - Clinical and Pathological Response to Primary Chemotherapy in Patients with Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Grouped According to Hormonal Receptors, Her2 Status, Grading and Ki-67 Proliferation Index
DP  - 2009 May 01
TA  - Anticancer Research
PG  - 1621--1625
VI  - 29
IP  - 5
4099  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/29/5/1621.short
4100  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/29/5/1621.full
SO  - Anticancer Res2009 May 01; 29
AB  - Objectives: Biological markers that reliably predict clinical and pathological response to primary systemic therapy may have considerable clinical potential; this study evaluated response compared to expression of ER, PgR and Her2, grading and Ki-67 proliferation index before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Patients and Methods: Fifty-five patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy for LABC. The incidence of clinical and pathological responses was assessed with respect to basal clinical stage, absent/low vs. high ER and PgR status, low vs. high proliferation index, grading and Her2 overexpression. Results: Overall, 30 patients (54%) underwent downstaging of their primary tumor; pathological complete remission was observed in only one patient with Her2 positive breast tumor. Patients with pre-treatment Ki-67 >20%, Her2 overexpression, T2b/T3 vs. T4 clinical stage achieved higher response rate. Conclusion: The future of neoadjuvant therapy lies in tailoring treatment to individual patients by identifying response predictors; although the number of patients reported is small, this study confirms that clinical stage at diagnosis, Ki-67 reduction and Her2 overexpression are predictive of tumor response to neoadjuvant regimens.