Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of HER2-0 and HER2-Low-Positive Breast Cancer Patients: Real-World Data from Patients Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Simple Summary: A new subgroup of breast cancer patients with different survival outcomes, even before new treatment options have been approved, which can be easily differentiated immunohistochemically, has recently received great attention. The approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan in August 2022 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with HER2-low-positive metastatic pretreated breast cancer suggested a new breast cancer subtype; this implied new cohorts of patients with different overall survival outcomes and therefore different treatment needs and chances. Therefore, in our study, we examined whether we could retrospectively differentiate HER-0 and HER2-low-positive breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in a long-term follow-up over 20 years. We observed the overall survival, disease-free survival, and pathological complete response rate. In our study, we observed the long-term survival outcomes investigated for HER2-0 and HER2-low-positive breast cancer patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Between 1998 and 2020, 10,333 patients with primary breast cancer were treated, including 1373 patients with HER2-0 or HER2-low-positive disease with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Descriptive analyses were performed, and logistic regression models and survival analyses were calculated for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Among the 1373 patients, 930 (67.73%) had HER2-low-positive and 443 (32.27%) had HER2-0 tumors. Patients with HER2-0 tumors had a significantly better pathological complete response, 29.25% vs. 20.09%, and pathological complete response/in situ, 31.97% vs. 24.08%, than patients with HER2-low-positive tumors (p < 0.001; p = 0.003), regardless of the hormone receptor (HR) status. No statistically significant differences were observed for the HR-positive (p = 0.315; p = 0.43) or HR-negative subgroups (p = 0.573; p = 0.931). DFS and OS were significantly longer for HR-positive, HER2-low-positive patients (log-rank p = 0.02; p = 0.012). OS was significantly longer for HR-negative, HER2-0 patients (log-rank p = 0.032). No significant DFS differences were found for the HR-negative cohort (log-rank p = 0.232). For the overall cohort, no significant differences were noted between HER2-low-positive and HER2-0 patients, either for DFS (log-rank p = 0.220) or OS (log-rank p = 0.403). These results show different survival outcomes for HER2-0 and HER2-low-positive tumors relative to HR status. These different cohorts can be identified using standardized immunohistochemistry, even retrospectively.

Automated summary

A new subtype of breast cancer patients with different survival outcomes has attracted attention recently, which can be easily distinguished by immunohistochemistry even before new treatment options have been approved. This study retrospectively examined HER-0 and HER2-low-positive breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy over a 20-year follow-up period and observed overall survival, disease-free survival, and pathological complete response rate.