Outcomes in Premenopausal Patients with HR+/HER2-Breast Cancer and Lymph Node Micrometastasis Based on the 21-Gene Recurrence Score

Background: Postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor positive, HER2-negative (HR+/HER2-) early breast cancer (EBC) and 21-gene OncotypeDX (ODX) recurrence scores (RS) <26 do not benefit from chemoendocrine therapy (CET) compared to endocrine monotherapy (E), regardless of nodal status. In premenopausal patients, nodal status is significant in interpretation of RS. However, guidelines are not explicit in recommendations for patients with micrometastasis (pN1mi staging). Methods: A cohort of patients aged <50 years with HR+/HER2- EBC who underwent ODX testing was identified within the National Cancer Database 2004-2019 dataset. We confirmed the prognostic value of ODX in pN1mi disease with multivariate Cox regression for overall survival (OS). We explored how patterns of practice differed by nodal status in cases of low RS (<26) with chi-squared testing. Finally, we performed Kaplan-Meier models comparing OS for those with RS <26 receiving E versus CET, controlling for nodal status. Results: Of 72 068 patients aged <50 years with HR+/HER2- EBC, 6.1% (n = 4402) had micrometastasis. Multivariate Cox regression confirmed prognostic value of ODX in this pN1mi cohort (P <.001). In the context of RS <26, CET was used most commonly in patients with 1-3 involved lymph nodes (pN1a-c disease), less frequently in pN1mi disease, and least in node-negative (pN0) disease. A benefit in OS was observed in cases with RS <26 and pN1a-c receiving CET vs. E (P =.017), but not in pN1mi (P =.49) or pN0 (P =.57) disease. Conclusion: Our large registry analysis found CET was associated with improved OS in pN1a-c, but not in pN1mi or pN0 disease.

Automated summary

This study analyzed a large database and found that adjuvant chemoendocrine therapy improved overall survival (OS) in patients with involved lymph nodes (pN1a-c disease), but not in patients with micrometastasis (pN1mi) or without lymph node involvement (pN0 disease).