Predicting pathologic complete response in triple negative breast cancer

INTRODUCTION: Pathologic complete response (pCR) has a strong correlation with improved survival in breast cancer. Peripheral blood values such as neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) have prognostic value in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In this study, we aimed to investigate the prediction of pCR by using the peripheral blood values prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer.
METHODS: A total of 102 patients with locally and locally advanced TNBC treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nChT) in four out-patients clinics of medical oncology were included. Hemogram parameters obtained within three weeks prior to neoadjuvant ChT were used. The relationship between pCR and these values was tested with Mann-Whitney U and Student t test, which were appropriate. Categorical variables were tested by Chi-squared test.
RESULTS: The median age was 42 years. One third of the patients received carboplatine along with the backbone chemotherapy. Patients who received carboplatine had a higher rate of pCR (65.7% vs. 31.3% of patients with or without carboplatine had pCR, respectively). The median values of NLR, PLR, and LMR were similar in the patients with and without pCR. Similarly, SII and PIV were not able to predict pCR in patients with TNBC who were treated with neoadjuvant ChT
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The addition of carboplatine to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved the pCR in TNBC. The pre-treatment peripheral blood values such as NLR, PLR, LMR, SII and PIV values could not predict the pCR.