Table 1.
Patient and tumor characteristics.
| Overall n° 209 | AT×3→CMF×3 n° 111 | AT×4→CMF×4 n° 98 | AT×3→CMF×3 TN n° 28 | AT×4→CMF×4 TN n° 34 | AT×3→CMF×3 HR+ n° 83 | AT×4→CMF×4 HR+ n° 64 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, | 48 | 47 | 51 | 45 | 54 | 48 | 50 |
| median (range) | (30–74) | (30–74) | (31–73) | (32–69) | (31–73) | (30–74) | (32–72) |
| p-value = 0.06 | p-value = 0.075 | p-value = 0.29 | |||||
| BMI | |||||||
| <25 | 114 (54.5) | 56 (50.5) | 58 (59.2) | 16 (57.1) | 20 (58.8) | 39 (47.0) | 38 (59.4) |
| ⩾25 | 79 (37.8) | 42 (37.8) | 37 (37.7) | 7 (25.0) | 13 (38.2) | 36 (43.4) | 24 (37.5) |
| NA | 16 (7.7) | 13 (11.7) | 3 (3.1) | 5 (17.9) | 1 (3.0) | 8 (9.6) | 2 (3.1) |
| p-value = 0.05 | p-value = 0.11 | p-value = 0.16 | |||||
| Biology | |||||||
| HR+ | 147 (70.3) | 83 (74.8) | 64 (65.3) | ||||
| TN | 62 (29.7) | 28 (25.2) | 34 (34.7) | ||||
| p-value = 0.18 | |||||||
| Primary tumor | |||||||
| cT1–cT2 | 145 (69.4) | 100 (90.1) | 45 (45.9) | 24 (85.7) | 20 (58.8) | 76 (91.6) | 25 (39.1) |
| cT3–cT4 | 63 (30.1) | 10 (9.0) | 53 (54.1) | 3 (10.7) | 14 (41.2) | 7 (8.4) | 39 (60.9) |
| NA | 1 (0.5) | 1 (0.9) | 0 (0) | 1 (3.6) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| p-value < 0.00002 | p-value = 0.019 | p-value < 0.00006 | |||||
| Axillar nodes | |||||||
| cN0 | 74 (35.4) | 44 (39.6) | 30 (30.6) | 11 (39.3) | 12 (35.3) | 33 (39.8) | 18 (28.1) |
| cN1–3 | 135 (64.6) | 67 (60.4) | 68 (69.4) | 17 (60.7) | 22 (64.7) | 50 (60.2) | 46 (71.9) |
| p-value = 0.22 | p-value = 0.95 | p-value = 0.12 | |||||
| Grading* | |||||||
| G1–G2 | 106 (50.7) | 60 (54.1) | 46 (46.9) | 4 (14.3) | 6 (17.6) | 56 (67.5) | 40 (62.5) |
| G3 | 73 (34.9) | 34 (30.6) | 39 (39.8) | 20 (71.4) | 26 (76.5) | 14 (16.9) | 13 (20.3) |
| NA | 30 (14.4) | 17 (15.3) | 13 (13.3) | 4 (14.3) | 2 (5.9) | 13 (15.6) | 11 (17.2) |
| p-value = 0.38 | p-value = 0.53 | p-value = 0.81 | |||||
| Ki67% | |||||||
| <20 | 41 (19.6) | 20 (18.0) | 21 (21.4) | 1 (3.6) | 3 (8.8) | 19 (22.9) | 18 (28,1) |
| ⩾20 | 147 (70.3) | 75 (67.6) | 72 (73.5) | 25 (89.3) | 29 (85.3) | 50 (60.2) | 43 (67.2) |
| NA | 21 (10.1) | 16 (14.4) | 5 (5.1) | 2 (7.1) | 2 (5.9) | 14 (16.9) | 3 (4.7) |
| p-value = 0.08 | p-value = 0.70 | p-value = 0.07 | |||||
Data are presented as n (%) except where otherwise noted. The p-value of the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test (age) or χ2 test (other variables) is indicated in bold numbers when statistically significant. In case of not available (NA) information, the p-value refers to the χ2 test performed after excluding NA data.
*
According to Elston–Ellis breast cancer grading system.
AT, doxorubicin-paclitaxel; BMI, body mass index; CMF, cyclophosphamide-methotrexate-5-fluorouracil; HR+, hormone receptor-positive; TN, triple-negative.