The addition of a taxane to neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens has been shown to increase the rate of pathological complete response (pCR) and overall survival (OS).

However, up to now, no research has evaluated the response with a combination of doxorubicin and paclitaxel (AP) regimen for the neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) of advanced breast cancer, especially with a 10-year period of follow-up.

The aim of this study was to evaluate treatment efficacy and identify reliable long-term prognostic factors in stage III breast cancer patients who were treated with a neoadjuvant AP regimen in Vietnam.

This study demonstrated that achieving pCR was associated with improved 10-year OS and disease-free survival (DFS).

We found that advanced breast cancer patients with hormone receptor-negative (HR-negative) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive disease benefited from neoadjuvant therapy, achieving higher pCR.