Response and prognosis of taxanes and anthracyclines neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare the response to neoadjuvant taxanes and anthracyclines chemotherapy and survival in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and non-TNBC. Methods Two hundred and forty-nine patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included in this retrospective study. All the patients were classified as TNBC and non-TNBC according to the immunohistochemical results of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2 status. TNBC is defined as the lack of ER, PR, and HER2 expression. The pathological response and long-time survival were compared between TNBC patients and non-TNBC patients. Results Among all 249 cases, 54 (21.7%) were TNBC patients, 195 (78.3%) were non-TNBC patients. Compared with non-TNBC patients, the pathological complete response (pCR) rate of patients with TNBC was 25.9%, which was significantly higher than that of patients with non-TNBC (P = 0.019). Patients with TNBC, especially for those with residual disease after chemotherapy, had decreased 5 years' disease-free survival (DFS) and 5 years' overall survival (OS) compared with those with non-TNBC (P < 0.05). The 5 years' DFS and OS of patients who achieve pCR were significantly higher than that of patients with residual disease after chemotherapy (P < 0.05). Patients with TNBC and non-TNBC had similar DFS and OS if pCR achieved. Conclusion Patients with TNBC were more sensitive to neoadjuvant docetaxel plus epirubicin chemotherapy. Compared with non-TNBC patients, TNBC patients had increased pCR rate, but were associated with significantly worse survival.