Abstract
Forty-two patients with clinical stage IIIA or IIIB breast cancer were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by mastectomy and radiotherapy. The median follow-up was 32 months (range 10-72 months) and the median time to progression was 17 months (range 10-30 months). A multivariate analysis showed that a longer disease-free survival (DFS) was related to more chemotherapy cycles given (P = 0.003), a better pathological response to chemotherapy (P = 0.04) and fewer positive axillary lymph nodes (P = 0.05). A better overall survival (OS) was related to more chemotherapy cycles given (P = 0.03) and better pathological response to chemotherapy (P = 0.04). In patients with residual tumour after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, high levels of staining for Ki-67 was correlated with a worse DFS (P = 0.008). Other biological characteristics, including oestrogen receptor status, microvessel density (CD31 staining), P-glycoprotein (P-gp) staining and nuclear accumulation of p53, were not independent prognostic factors for either DFS or OS. If both P-gp and p53 were expressed, DFS and OS were worse in the uni- and multivariate analysis. The preliminary results of this phase II study suggest that coexpression of P-gp/p53 and a high level of staining for Ki-67 after chemotherapy are associated with a worse prognosis, and that prolonged neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the attainment of a pathological complete remission are important factors in determining outcome for patients with this disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Honkoop, A., van Diest, P., de Jong, J. et al. Prognostic role of clinical, pathological and biological characteristics in patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Br J Cancer 77, 621–626 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1998.99
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1998.99
This article is cited by
-
Association of relative dose intensity with BMI and pathologic complete response in patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2021)
-
Association between pre-diagnosis BMI, physical activity, pathologic complete response, and chemotherapy completion in women treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer
Breast Cancer (2019)
-
Effects of conventional neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer on tumor angiogenesis
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2015)
-
Expression of Molecular Biological Markers in Breast Cancer under Conditions of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)
Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine (2014)
-
18F-FDG PET/CT predicts survival in patients with inflammatory breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy
European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (2013)