Factors influencing the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in stage III triple-negative breast cancer patients

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is a significant burden to women’s health worldwide, mainly due to the diagnostic tendency at the advanced stages, metastasis, and chemoresistance. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between age, histological grading, menopausal status, Ki-67, and the percentage of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in stage III TNBC patients.Methods: This study was a case-control analytic observational study. Samples were obtained using a consecutive sampling method. All patients’ and clinicopathological characteristics were extracted from medical records, including the chemotherapeutic response.Results: This study found no association between age and menopausal status to chemoresistance. Meanwhile, tumor grade, Ki-67, and TIL were significantly associated with chemotherapeutic resistance. Finally, multivariate analysis showed that only Ki-67 was independently associated with chemoresistance with R 14.4 (CI: 1.80-115.73) and a p-value = 0.012.Conclusion: High Ki-67 was independently associated with increased chemoresistance to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in stage III triple-negative breast cancer patients.