Abstract
IntroductionInvestigate the patterns of mammographically detected calcifications before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to determine their value for efficacy evaluation and surgical decision making.Methods187 patients with malignant mammographic calcifications were followed to record the appearances and changes in the calcifications and to analyze their responses to NACT.ResultsPatients with calcifications had higher rates of hormonal receptor (HR) positive tumors (74.3% versus 64.6%) and HER2 positive tumors (51.3% versus 33.4%, p = 0.004) and a similar pathologic complete response (pCR) rate compared to patients without calcifications (35.4% versus 29.8%). After NACT, the range of calcification decreased in 40% of patients, increased in 7.5% and remained stable in 52.5%; the calcification density decreased in 15% of patients, increased in 7.5% and remained stable in 77.5%; none of these change patterns were related to tumor response rate. No significant correlation was observed between the calcification appearance (morphology, distribution, range, diameter or density) and tumor subtypes or pCR rates. Among patients with malignant calcifications, 54 showed calcifications alone, 40 occurred with an architectural distortion (AD) and 93 with a mass. Calcifications were observed inside the tumor in 44% of patients and outside in 56%, with similar pCR rates and patterns of change.ConclusionsCalcification appearance did not clearly change after NACT, and calcification patterns were not related to pCR rate, suggesting that mammogram may not accurate to evaluate tumor response changes. Microcalcifications visible after NACT is essential for determining the extent of excision, patients with calcifications that occurred outside of the mass still had the opportunity for breast conservation.
Highlights
Investigate the patterns of mammographically detected calcifications before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to determine their value for efficacy evaluation and surgical decision making
Several randomized trials have demonstrated that NACT may improve the resectability rate, offering disease-free and overall survival rates that are at least equivalent to those offered by surgery alone [5,6,7]and a statistically significant increase in the use of breast conserving therapy (BCT) over mastectomy [8,9]
The results indicated that MG and sonography are accurate in measuring tumor size at the time of diagnosis, but they have limited sensitivity to the residual tumor, preventing accurate assessment of the pathological response
Summary
Investigate the patterns of mammographically detected calcifications before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to determine their value for efficacy evaluation and surgical decision making. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is the preferred approach for patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) [1,2]. NACT was used to induce tumor shrinkage and to improve the disease-free survival in patients with LABC considered inoperable at diagnosis [3,4]. Several randomized trials have demonstrated that NACT may improve the resectability rate, offering disease-free and overall survival rates that are at least equivalent to those offered by surgery alone [5,6,7]and a statistically significant increase in the use of breast conserving therapy (BCT) over mastectomy [8,9]. Precise measurement of responses to NACT is essential for surgical decision making, includes physical examination, mammogram (MG), sonography and MRI [10]. MRI has been demonstrated to be the most reliable technique for evaluating residual disease after NACT [12,17,18,19,22,23]
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