Outcomes in premenopausal patients with HR+/HER2- breast cancer and lymph node micro-metastasis based on the 21-gene recurrence score.

Nadeem Bilani Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Morningside-West, New York, NY info_outline Nadeem Bilani, Rima Patel, Amy Tiersten

Authors Nadeem Bilani Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Morningside-West, New York, NY info_outline Nadeem Bilani, Rima Patel, Amy Tiersten Organizations Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Morningside-West, New York, NY, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY Abstract Disclosures Research Funding No funding received None. Background: Postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor positive, HER2-negative (HR+/HER2-) early breast cancer (EBC) and 21-gene OncotypeDX (ODX) recurrence scores (RS) <26 do not benefit from chemoendocrine therapy (‘CET’) compared to endocrine monotherapy (‘E’). The TAILORx and RxPONDER trials demonstrated this was consistent in node-negative and node-positive disease, respectively. In premenopausal patients, however, guidelines for those with low RS diverge between disease involving 0 (pN0) vs. 1-3 (pN1a-c) lymph nodes. Additionally, treatment decisions are less clear for patients with micro-metastasis (pN1mi), who comprised only about 10% of patients in RxPONDER. This study used the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to assess treatment patterns and survival outcomes in premenopausal patients with EBC and lymph node micro-metastasis. Methods: A cohort of patients aged <50, diagnosed between 2004-2019 with HR+/HER2- EBC and who underwent ODX testing, was recruited from the NCDB. (A) Firstly, we described demographic and clinical characteristics of a sub-cohort with micro-metastasis using univariate statistics. (B) We confirmed the prognostic value of ODX in this sub-cohort with multivariate Cox regression analysis of overall survival (OS). (C) We explored patterns of practice amongst the total cohort with ODX <26 with chi-squared testing for differences in CET use by nodal status. (D) To elucidate the predictive value of this assay, we performed Kaplan-Meier models comparing OS for those with RS <26 receiving E vs. CET, controlling granularly for nodal status: (i) pN1a-c, (ii) pN1mi, and (iii) pN0. Results: Of n=72,068 patients aged <50 with HR+/HER2- EBC and ODX data, 6.1% (n=4,402) had micro-metastasis. (A) The median age of this subgroup was 45 (IQR 41-47) years. Most tumors were grade II (n=2,472, 57.7%) with ductal histology (n=3,500, 80.3%). 73.4% of pN1mi cases had RS <26, while 26.6% had RS ≥26. (B) Multivariate Cox regression – adjusting for comorbidity, race and chemotherapy use – confirmed significance in this pN1mi cohort of RS ≥26 prognosticating poorer OS compared to RS 0-15 (HR 4.42, 95% CI 2.35-8.31, p<0.001). (C) 29.0% (n=1,033) of patients with pN1mi and ODX <26 underwent CET, greater than 15.2% (n=6,568) with pN0 and less than 47.3% (n=2,884) with pN1a-c staging (p<0.001). (D) A benefit in OS (p=0.017) was observed in cases with RS<26 and pN1a-c using CET (5-year OS: 99%) vs. E (5-year OS: 97.5%), but not in pN1mi (p=0.49) or pN0 (p=0.57) disease. Conclusions: The management of premenopausal patients with HR+/HER2- EBC, isolated micro-metastasis, and ODX <26 is unclear. Our large registry study found the addition of chemotherapy to endocrine therapy was associated with improved survival in cases with ODX<26 involving 1-3 lymph nodes, but not in node-negative or micro-metastatic disease. Prospective trials are needed to confirm these findings.