Pathologic complete response (pCR) and survival of women with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC): an analysis based on biologic subtypes and demographic characteristics

In this US-based study of the National Cancer Database (NCDB), we examined 8550 patients diagnosed with non-metastatic, invasive inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) who received surgery from 2004-2013. Patients were grouped into four biologic subtypes (HR⁺/HER _2- , HR⁺/HER₂₊ , HR^-/HER ₂₊, HR^-/HER_2-). On average, women were 56 years of age at diagnosis and were followed for a median of 3.7 years. The majority were white (80%), had private health insurance (50%), and presented with poorly differentiated tumors (57%). Approximately 46% of the cancers were >5 cm. Most patients underwent mastectomy (94%) and received radiotherapy (71%). Differences by biologic subtypes were observed for grade, lymph node invasion, race, and tumor size (p < 0.0001). Patients experiencing pathologic complete response (pCR, 12%) vs. non-pCR had superior 5-year overall survival (OS) (77% vs. 54%) (p < 0.0001). Survival was poor for triple-negative (TN) tumors (37%) vs. other biologic subtypes (60%) (p < 0.0001). On multivariable analysis, TN-IBC, positive margins, and not receiving either chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or radiotherapy were independently associated with poor 5-year survival (p < 0.0001). In this analysis of IBC, categorized by biologic subtypes, we observed significant differential tumor, patient and treatment characteristics, and OS.