J Clin Oncol 2012 May 16;30(15):1796-804. Epub 2012 Apr 16.
German Breast Group, c/o GBG Forschungs GmbH, Martin-Behaim-Straße 12, 63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany.
Purpose: The exact definition of pathologic complete response (pCR) and its prognostic impact on survival in intrinsic breast cancer subtypes is uncertain.
Methods: Tumor response at surgery and its association with long-term outcome of 6,377 patients with primary breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant anthracycline-taxane-based chemotherapy in seven randomized trials were analyzed.
Results: Disease-free survival (DFS) was significantly superior in patients with no invasive and no in situ residuals in breast or nodes (n = 955) compared with patients with residual ductal carcinoma in situ only (n = 309), no invasive residuals in breast but involved nodes (n = 186), only focal-invasive disease in the breast (n = 478), and gross invasive residual disease (n = 4,449; P < . Read More