Contribution of endocrine therapy in oestrogen receptor-positive pT1a-b breast cancer: Results of a retrospective study

Abstract

Introduction: Few data have been reported regarding endocrine therapy (ET) in patients with small pT1a-b ER-postive breast cancer (BC). Thus, we conducted a study to detect possible survival improvements due to ET in such patients.

Methods: Our retrospective observational study included 5545 patients with pT1a-b ER-positive BC treated in 15 French centres, excluding patients with HER2-positive status, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, ER-negative status, unknown pN status or in situ BC. We estimated disease-free survival (DFS), recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) via univariate analysis and multivariate Cox regression.

Results: Most patients (80.3%: 4453) received ET and-when compared to those without ET-experienced increases of 2.5% and 3.3% in DFS and 1.9% and 4.3% in RFS after 5 and 7 years of follow-up, respectively, with little difference in OS. In Cox regression analysis, no ET was significantly associated with decreased DFS (hazard ratio, HR = 1.275, p = 0.047, 95% CI[1.003-1.620]) but not OS or RFS in all patients, while in 2363 patients with pT1a-b ER-positive grade 2-3 BC, no ET was significantly associated with decreased DFS (HR = 1.502, p = 0.049, 95% CI[1.001-2.252]), but not OS (HR = 1.361, p = 0.272). ET omission was not significantly associated with decreased survival in 3047 patients with pT1a-b ER-positive grade 1 BC.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that while ET provided a beneficial impact on survival to patients with pT1a-bN0 ER-positive BC-and especially in those with grade 2-3 tumours-no such impact was observed in grade 1 tumours. Consequently, ET should be discussed with these patients, particularly in those with pT1a grade 1 tumours.

Keywords: Aromatase inhibitors; Breast neoplasms; Disease-free survival; Multivariate analysis; Oestrogen receptors; Retrospective studies; Tamoxifen.