Omission of breast surgery in selected breast cancer patients with excellent response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy

Abstract

Modern neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) can result in high pathologic complete response rates (pCR) in triple negative (TN) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive (HER2+) breast cancer. The role of surgery is, therefore, being reconsidered in this rapidly evolving field. This report presents oncological outcomes of seven patients with TN or HER2+ breast cancer, with exceptional response to NST, and a post-NST image-guided vacuum assisted biopsy showing no residual disease (ypT0), who opted not to have breast surgery. The median age was 49 (IQR 36–61) years and the median tumour size at diagnosis was 50 (IQR 16–65) mm. All patients received breast radiotherapy and continued adjuvant systemic therapies as appropriate. At a median follow-up of 67 (IQR 61–77) months, all patients were alive and free of disease. This small case series supports the need for further research in ‘exceptional responders’ to provide safe, individualized patient-centred care.