Third Department of Breast Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University (Yunnan Cancer Hospital), Kunming, 650118, Yunnan, China.
Department of Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650032, Yunnan, China.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2023 Sep;149(12):10109-10117. doi: 10.1007/s00432-023-04904-x. Epub 2023 Jun 2.
In this study, we aimed to explore the potential significance of AR expression in HER2-positive breast cancer patients who underwent neoadjuvant targeted therapy. Specifically, we investigated the correlation between AR expression levels and pathological complete response (pCR) rates. Our objective was to determine whether there were significant differences in pCR rates among HER2-positive breast cancer patients with different levels of AR expression.
We conducted a retrospective analysis of 258 HER-2 positive breast cancer patients who underwent neoadjuvant dual-blocked standard therapy (following the NCCN Guideline 2021) at three breast cancer centers in southwest China. We analyzed the clinicopathological features and pCR rates of these patients. The cut-off value for AR expression level was calculated as the median value of 70%. We used the chi-square test to investigate the correlation between AR expression level and pCR rate, as well as other clinicopathological features.
Out of the 258 patients analyzed, 154 (59.69%) achieved pCR. Based on the cut-off value of 70%, AR expression level was classified as low (AR ≤ 70%) or high (AR > 70%) expression. Our analysis revealed a significant correlation between AR expression level and pCR rate in HER2-positive breast cancer patients (P = 0.031). We also found a significant association between pCR rate and clinical stage (P = 0.033) and chemotherapy regimen (P = 0.034). Furthermore, subgroup analyses showed that the pCR rate was higher in patients with high AR expression levels compared to those with low AR expression levels. Additionally, we observed that patients with an ER/AR ratio of less than 1 had a higher pCR rate than those with an ER/AR ratio greater than 1 (P = 0.038).
Our study findings suggest that HER2-positive breast cancer patients with high AR expression levels may achieve higher pCR rates when treated with neoadjuvant dual-blocked therapy. Overall, our results support the idea that AR expression levels have a significant correlation with pCR rates in HER2-positive breast cancer patients receiving this particular form of treatment.
本研究旨在探讨 AR 表达在接受新辅助靶向治疗的 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者中的潜在意义。具体而言，我们研究了 AR 表达水平与病理完全缓解（pCR）率之间的相关性。我们的目的是确定在 AR 表达水平不同的 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者中，pCR 率是否存在显著差异。
我们对在中国西南地区的三家乳腺癌中心接受新辅助双重阻断标准治疗（遵循 NCCN 指南 2021）的 258 例 HER-2 阳性乳腺癌患者进行了回顾性分析。我们分析了这些患者的临床病理特征和 pCR 率。AR 表达水平的截断值计算为 70%的中位数。我们使用卡方检验来研究 AR 表达水平与 pCR 率以及其他临床病理特征之间的相关性。
在分析的 258 例患者中，有 154 例（59.69%）达到了 pCR。根据 70%的截断值，将 AR 表达水平分为低（AR≤70%）或高（AR>70%）表达。我们的分析显示，在 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者中，AR 表达水平与 pCR 率之间存在显著相关性（P=0.031）。我们还发现 pCR 率与临床分期（P=0.033）和化疗方案（P=0.034）之间存在显著关联。此外，亚组分析显示，高 AR 表达水平患者的 pCR 率高于低 AR 表达水平患者。此外，我们观察到 ER/AR 比值小于 1 的患者的 pCR 率高于 ER/AR 比值大于 1 的患者（P=0.038）。
我们的研究结果表明，接受新辅助双重阻断治疗的 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者中，AR 表达水平较高可能会获得更高的 pCR 率。总的来说，我们的研究结果支持这样一种观点，即 AR 表达水平与接受这种特定治疗的 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者的 pCR 率之间存在显著相关性。
