Should women with early breast cancer under 40 years of age have a routine 21-gene recurrence score testing: A SEER database study

Young Age as a Predictor of Chemotherapy Recommendation and Treatment in Breast Cancer: A National Cancer Database Study

INTRODUCTION

Breast cancer, although the second most common malignancy in women in the United States, is rare in patients under the age of 40 y. However, this young patient population has high recurrence and mortality rates, with chemotherapy frequently used as adjuvant treatment. We aimed to determine whether age is an independent predictor of chemotherapy recommendation and subsequent treatment and the relationship to Oncotype Dx (ODX) recurrence score (RS).

METHODS

The National Cancer Database was retrospectively reviewed from 2010-2016 to identify women with early-stage (pT1-pT3, pN0-pN1mic, M0), hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative breast cancer who underwent ODX RS testing.

RESULTS

Of 95,382 patients who met the inclusion criteria, risk groups using the traditional ODX RS cutoffs were 59% low, 33% intermediate, and 8% high. Using Trial Assigning Individualized Options for Treatment RS cutoffs, risk groups were 23% low, 62% intermediate, and 15% high. Chemotherapy recommendation decreased as age at diagnosis increased (P < 0.001). Increasing age was associated with decreased odds of chemotherapy recommendation in univariate models both continuously (odds ratio: 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.97-0.98; P < 0.001) and categorically by decade (P < 0.001). Age by decade remained an independent prognosticator of chemotherapy recommendation (P < 0.001), adjusted for risk groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Chemotherapy recommendation and treatment differs by age among patients with early-stage hormone receptor positive breast cancer who undergo ODX testing. While molecular profiling has been shown to accurately predict the benefit of chemotherapy, younger age at diagnosis is a risk factor for discordant use of ODX RS for treatment strategies in breast cancer; with patients aged 18-39 disproportionately affected.

Survival Benefit of Chemotherapy According to 21-Gene Recurrence Score in Young Women with Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND

Initial trials evaluating Oncotype DX, reported as a recurrence score (RS) from 0 to 100, were not powered to evaluate overall survival, and premenopausal women were underrepresented. The purpose of this study was to explore the benefit of chemotherapy according to RS among younger women eligible for oncotype testing.

METHODS

Women aged 40-50, diagnosed with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer between 2010 and 2017 were selected from the National Cancer Database (NCBD). Patients were grouped by age, RS, nodal status, and chemotherapy receipt. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to compare unadjusted overall survival (OS) between the groups, and log-rank tests were used to test for a difference between groups. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association between select factors and OS.

RESULTS

A total of 15,422 patients met inclusion criteria, 45.3% of whom received chemotherapy. Median follow-up time was 66.4 (50.6-86.6) months. Patients who received chemotherapy were more likely to have higher-stage and higher-grade tumors, tumors that were PR-negative, and have higher RS (p < 0.001 for all). RS was prognostic for OS regardless of nodal status. After adjustment, chemotherapy was associated with a significant improvement in OS only in the pN1 RS 31-50 subgroup (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

RS retains its prognostic value in younger patients with early stage HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Chemotherapy survival benefit was limited to patients aged 40-50 with pN1 disease and RS of 31-50. Therefore, chemotherapy decision-making should be especially preference-sensitive in women aged 40-50 with intermediate RS, where it may not provide a survival benefit for many women.

EFFECT OF MICRORNA-138 ON EPITHELIAL-MESENCHYMAL TRANSITION AND INVASION OF BREAST CANCER CELLS BY TARGETING SEMAPHORIN 4C

In view of the role of miR-138 in cancer cells, we predicted the target of miR-138 and its targeting to SEMA4C by bioinformatics software and luciferase experiment. The expression levels of miR-138 in human normal breast epithelial cells and two kinds of BC cells were compared, and the transfection cells were selected. MiR-138 mimetic negative control (miR-NC), miR-138 mimic and miR-138 inhibitor were designed for cell transfection. The results showed that the expression level of miR-138 in MCF-7 cells was the lowest. The up regulation of miR-138 would lead to the high expression of E-cad and the low expression of N-cad, vim and SEMA4C, and the vitality and invasion of BC cells would decrease. The down regulation of miR-138 would lead to the low expression of E-cad and the high expression of N-cad, vim and SEMA4C, and the vitality and invasion of BC cells would increase. miR-138 targeted regulation of SEMA4C can promote the expression of N-cad, inhibit the expression of E-cad, vim and SEMA4C, reverse the EMT of BC cells, and inhibit the activity and invasion of BC cells. MiR-138 has clinical potential as a tumor marker of BC.

Efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy stratified by age and the 21-gene recurrence score in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer

BACKGROUND

The 21-gene recurrence score (RS) can predict chemotherapy benefit in estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative (ER+/HER2-) early breast cancer patients. Age would influence the interaction between RS and chemotherapy effect. The current study aimed to determine RS thresholds which were predictive of chemotherapy benefit in young and old women, respectively.

METHODS

Patients diagnosed with pN0-1, ER+/HER2- breast cancer between 2009 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Propensity score matching was performed according to chemotherapy usage. After stratifying patients with different cutoffs of age, the RS threshold indicating chemotherapy benefit in each age strata were determined by cox proportional hazard models.

RESULTS

A total of 1227 patients were included. The median age was 58 years and the median RS was 24. After matching, the RS thresholds suggesting chemotherapy benefit varied with age. For patients ≤55 years, chemotherapy benefit was observed in those having RS > 25 (P = 0.03), with 4-year invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) of 97.0 and 89.3% in patients receiving chemotherapy or not. While patients derived no benefit from chemotherapy if they had RS ≤25 (P = 0.66, 4-year IDFS: 95.3% vs. 94.6%). For patients > 55 years, adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with better prognosis in those with RS > 36 (P = 0.014, 4-year IDFS: 94.7% vs. 76.2%), but not in those having RS ≤36 (P = 0.13, 4-year IDFS: 92.3% vs. 95.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

Old patients need higher RS thresholds to demonstrate the chemotherapy benefit. Further efforts are warranted to investigate the association between age and predictive RS thresholds.

Real-world analysis of clinical and economic impact of 21-gene recurrence score (RS) testing in early-stage breast cancer (ESBC) in Ireland

PURPOSE

Results from TAILOR-X suggest that up to 70% of hormone receptor-positive (HR+) node-negative (N0) ESBC patients (pts) may avoid chemotherapy (CT) with RS ≤ 25. We assess clinical and economic impacts of RS testing on treatment using real-world data.

METHODS

From October 2011 to February 2019, a retrospective, cross-sectional observational study was conducted of HR+ N0 ESBC pts who had RS testing in Ireland. Pts were classified low risk (RS ≤ 25) and high risk (RS > 25). Clinical risk was calculated. Data were collected via electronic patient records. Cost data were supplied by the National Healthcare Pricing Regulatory Authority.

RESULTS

963 pts. Mean age is 56 years. Mean tumour size is 1.7 cm. 114 (11.8%), 635 (66%), 211 (22%), 3 (0.2%) pts had G1, G2, G3 and unknown G, respectively. 796 pts (82.8%) low RS, 159 (16.5%) high RS and 8 pts (0.7%) unknown RS. 263 pts (26%) were aged ≤ 50 at diagnosis; 117 (45%) had RS 0-15, 63 (24.5%) 16-20, 39 (15.3%) 21-25 and 40 (15.2%) RS 26-100. 4 pts (1.5%) had unknown RS. Post-RS testing, 602 pts (62.5%) had a change in CT decision; 593 changed to hormone therapy (HT) alone. In total, 262 pts received CT. Of pts receiving CT; 138 (53%) had RS > 25, 124 (47%) had RS ≤ 25. Of pts aged ≤ 50, 153 (58%) had high clinical risk, of whom 28 had RS 16-20. Assay use achieved a 62.5% change in treatment with 73% of pts avoiding CT. This resulted in savings of €4 million in treatment costs. Deducting assay costs, savings of €1.9 million were achieved.

CONCLUSION

Over the 8 years of the study, a 62.5% reduction in CT use was achieved with savings of over €1,900,000.

Risk-adapted adjuvant therapy of luminal early breast cancer in 2020

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The present review summarizes recent original publications addressing the topic of risk-adapted adjuvant therapy in early breast cancer (EBC). As neoadjuvant therapy has become a standard for triple negative and HER2+ EBC, it focusses on luminal EBC.

RECENT FINDINGS

Gene expression assays have become standard of care in luminal EBC, at least for patients with node negative disease. Two prospective randomized clinical trials, TAILORx (Oncotype DX) and MINDACT (MammaPrint) have presented additional analyses underlining the clinical utility of the tests. In times of COVID-19, immunohistochemically determined ER, PR, and Ki67 and early Ki67 response to endocrine therapy can be used to safely allocate patients for preoperative endocrine therapy and delay surgeries if resources are scarce. In patients with luminal high-risk disease, adding a CDK 4/6 inhibitor (abemaciclib) improves patient outcome already after short-term follow-up.

SUMMARY

Determination of recurrence risk will remain important in luminal EBC for optimal therapy decisions. In the future, risk-adapted treatment concepts will include decision making for chemotherapy but also for endocrine-based approaches.

Concordance Between 21-Gene Recurrence Scores in Multifocal or Multicentric Breast Carcinomas Differs by Age and Histologic Subtype

BACKGROUND

Among patients with multifocal or multicentric (MF/MC) breast cancer (BC) of similar morphology, concordance in Oncotype DX recurrence scores (RS) between tumors has been reported to be 87%. The effect of age and variation in histologic subtypes on RS concordance according to TAILORx criteria is unknown.

METHODS

We identified patients with MF/MC, estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-negative BC with two or more RS results treated at our institution from 2009 to 2018. Patients were analyzed by age group (≤ 50 and > 50 years). Low- and high-risk cut-offs were RS ≤ 25 and > 25 for age > 50 years, and RS ≤ 20 and > 20 for age ≤ 50 years. RS concordance was defined as no change in management based on RS variation between lesions.

RESULTS

Overall, 120 patients with MF/MC BC were identified-82 (68.3%) aged > 50 years and 38 (31.7%) aged ≤ 50 years. Patients aged ≤ 50 years had higher mean RS for both multifocal (20 vs. 14; p = 0.006) and multicentric (17 vs. 13; p = 0.003) tumors and more frequently had high-risk tumors (p < 0.0001). Among patients aged > 50 years, 95.1% had RS concordance between tumors (same subtype, 98.2%; variable subtype, 88.9%; p = 0.1). Among patients aged ≤ 50 years, RS concordance was 81.6%.

CONCLUSIONS

Among patients with MF/MC BC, RS concordance was high, particularly in those aged > 50 years with tumors of the same histologic subtype. RS testing of one focus may be sufficiently prognostic and predictive in patients aged > 50 years, regardless of subtype concordance. Testing of individual foci should be considered in patients aged ≤ 50 years due to a higher likelihood of RS discordance.

Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Distribution and Chemotherapy Benefit Among Women of Different Age Groups With HR-Positive, HER2-Negative, Node-Negative Breast Cancer in the SEER Database

Objective: To explore the distribution of Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score (RS), the proportion of receiving chemotherapy, and the relationship between RS and chemotherapy benefit according to detailed age groups in women with hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, node-negative (HR+/HER2−/N0) breast cancer.

Methods: This was an extensive, comprehensive, population-based retrospective study. Data on individuals with breast cancer were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. The cohort was divided into five groups by age (≤ 35, 36–50, 51–65, 66–80, >80 years). RS distribution and chemotherapy proportion among different age groups were analyzed, and the overall survivals between patients receiving chemotherapy and those not/unknown were compared in each age group.

Results: The study cohort comprised 49,539 patients and the largest age group was 51–65 years. The percentage of patients with low-risk RS (0–10) increased with age, whereas those with intermediate-risk RS (11–25) decreased with age (except for the group of 36–50 years, which had the highest rate of intermediate-risk RS). The age group ≤35 years has the greatest rate of high-risk RS (26–100). The proportion of receiving chemotherapy decreased with age in all RS risk categories. Overall survival was benefited by chemotherapy only in the age group of 66–80 years with intermediate- and high-risk RS, and chemotherapy seemed to do more harm than good for patients older than 80 years.

Conclusions: In the present study, we identified the distribution of RS, the proportion of receiving chemotherapy, and the relationship between RS and chemotherapy benefit according to a detailed age grouping for women with HR+/HER2−/N0 breast cancer, which may help in making individualized clinical decisions.