Table 1.
Pathologic complete response rates as function of tumor characteristics
| Tumor characteristic (n = 15) | pCR (%) | 95% confidence interval |
| HER2+ (15)a | 9 (60)a | 30–80 |
| HER2+/HR− (11), HER2+ | 8 (72) | 40–97 |
| HER2+/HR+ (4), luminal-Ba | 1 (25) | 4–77 |
| Stage | ||
| Metastatic (5) | 3 (60) | 12–74 |
| Locally recurrent (secondary IBC) (1) | 1 (100) | 0.05–72 |
| Stage IIIB/IIIC (9) | 5 (56) | 21–86 |
| Stage IIIB/IIIC/secondary IBC (10) | 6 (60) | 26–89 |
| Preoperative trastuzumab | ||
| Yes (13) | 9 (70) | 39–91 |
| No (2) | 0 (0) | 0–84 |
| Anthracycline–cyclophosphamide cycles | ||
| 2–3 (10) | 5 (50) | 19–81 |
| 4 (5) | 4 (80) | 28–99 |
One patient with stage IV with underlying cirrhosis died of embolism (no evidence of residual invasive cancer in breast at autopsy) before treatment completion; thus 15 patients were assessable for pathologic response. In addition to nine patients who had pathologic complete response, three patients had ≤5 mm residual invasive cancer; therefore, 12 of 15 (80%) patients had tumor ≤5 mm; 12 of 15 (80%) patients had no residual lymph node involvement.
Of the three of six HER2+ IBC patients who did not achieve pathologic complete response, two patients received trastuzumab postoperatively and one patient received two cycles of AC despite partial response to AC and completed two additional cycles of AC postoperatively.
IBC, inflammatory breast cancer.
pCR, pathologic complete response; HER2, epidermal growth factor receptor-2; HR, hormone receptor.