Table 1.
Clinicopathological characteristics and treatment regimens of enrolled patients.
| Characteristics | Total (n=222) No. (%) |
PH (N=41) No. (%) |
TCH (n=62) No. (%) |
AC-TH (n=119) No. (%) |
P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (median, range) | 64 (60, 95) | <0.001 | |||
| ≥ 60 and < 70 | 181 (81.5) | 20 (11.0) | 46 (25.4) | 115 (63.5) | |
| ≥ 70 | 41 (18.5) | 21 (51.2) | 16 (39.0) | 4 (9.8) | |
| Breast surgery | 0.797 | ||||
| Breast-conserving | 38 (17.1) | 7 (18.4) | 9 (23.7) | 22 (57.9) | |
| Mastectomy | 184 (82.9) | 34 (18.5) | 53 (28.8) | 97 (52.7) | |
| ALN surgery | <0.001 | ||||
| SLNB | 121 (55.0) | 34 (28.1) | 42 (34.7) | 45 (37.2) | |
| ALND | 99 (45.0) | 5 (5.1) | 20 (20.2) | 74 (74.7) | |
| No | 2 | 2 | |||
| Histological subtype | 0.550 | ||||
| IDC | 204 (91.9) | 36 (17.6) | 58 (28.4) | 110 (53.9) | |
| Non-IDC | 18 (8.1) | 5 (27.8) | 4 (22.2) | 9 (50.0) | |
| Tumor stage | <0.001 | ||||
| T1a-b | 27 (12.8) | 14 (51.9) | 8 (29.6) | 5 (18.5) | |
| T1c | 76 (34.5) | 18 (23.7) | 21 (27.6) | 37 (48.7) | |
| T2-3 | 117 (52.7) | 8 (6.8) | 32 (27.4) | 77 (65.8) | |
| Tx | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Tumor grade | 0.008 | ||||
| I-II | 79 (38.7) | 20 (25.3) | 26 (32.9) | 33 (41.8) | |
| III | 125 (61.3) | 15 (12.0) | 32 (25.6) | 78 (62.4) | |
| Unknown | 18 | 6 | 4 | 8 | |
| ALN status | <0.001 | ||||
| Negative | 139 (63.2) | 37 (26.6) | 48 (34.5) | 54 (38.8) | |
| Positive | 81 (36.8) | 2 (2.5) | 14 (17.3) | 65 (80.2) | |
| Nx | 2 | 2 | |||
| Stage | <0.001 | ||||
| I | 73(33.3) | 32(43.8) | 23(31.5) | 18(24.7) | |
| II | 107(48.9) | 7(6.5) | 33(30.8) | 67(62.6) | |
| III | 39(17.8) | 0 | 5(12.8) | 34(87.2) | |
| Unknown | 3 | ||||
| ER status | 0.273 | ||||
| Positive | 95 (42.8) | 20 (21.1) | 30 (31.6) | 45 (47.4) | |
| Negative | 127 (57.2) | 21 (16.5) | 32 (25.2) | 74 (58.3) | |
| PR status | 0.617 | ||||
| Positive | 60 (27.0) | 11 (18.3) | 14 (23.3) | 35 (58.3) | |
| Negative | 162 (73.0) | 30 (18.5) | 48 (29.6) | 84 (51.9) | |
| Ki-67, % | <0.001 | ||||
| < 40 | 106 (47.7) | 27 (25.5) | 37 (34.9) | 42 (39.6) | |
| ≥ 40 | 116 (52.3) | 14 (12.1) | 25 (21.6) | 77 (66.4) | |
| BMI | 0.487 | ||||
| Normal (<24) | 131 (59.0) | 21 (16.0) | 39 (29.8) | 71 (54.2) | |
| Overweight (≥24) | 91 (41.0) | 20 (22.0) | 23 (25.3) | 48 (52.7) | |
| Comorbidity | 0.011 | ||||
| No | 110 (49.5) | 15 (13.6) | 25 (22.7) | 70 (63.6) | |
| Yes | 112 (50.5) | 26 (23.2) | 37 (33.0) | 49 (43.8) |
Abbreviation: PH: paclitaxel plus trastuzumab; TCH: docetaxel plus carboplatin and trastuzumab; AC-TH: anthracyclines plus cyclophosphamide followed by taxanes and trastuzumab; ALN: axillary lymph node; SLNB, sentinel lymph node biopsy; ALND: axillary lymph node dissection; IDC: invasive ductal carcinoma; Non-IDC: non-invasive ductal carcinoma; ER: estrogen receptor; PR: progesterone receptor. The median Ki-67 index in this study was 40%, therefore, it was used as the cutoff to define low and high Ki-67 expression. Comorbidity includes hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease.