Table 1 Main clinic-pathologic characteristics.

From: Pathological complete response, category change, and prognostic significance of HER2-low breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant treatment: a multicenter analysis of 2489 cases

Characteristics

Overall N = 2489 (%)

HER2-0a N = 450 (%)

HER2-lowa N = 1023(%)

HER2-positivea N = 1016 (%)

P value

Age, years (median, range)

50 (21–86)

49 (26–77)

50 (22–86)

51 (21–77)

0.014

 <50

1183 (47.5)

226 (50.2)

510 (49.9)

457 (44.0)

 

 ≥50

1306 (52.5)

224 (49.8)

513 (50.1)

569 (56.0)

 

Menstruation

    

0.015

 Pre/peri-menopausal

1327 (53.3)

245 (54.4)

575 (56.2)

507 (49.9)

 

 Post-menopausal

1162 (46.7)

205 (45.6)

448 (43.8)

509 (50.1)

 

Histology

    

0.181

 IDC

2353 (94.5)

427 (94.9)

957 (93.5)

909 (95.4)

 

 non-IDC

136 (5.5)

23 (5.1)

66 (6.5)

47 (4.6)

 

Grade

    

0.005

 I

39 (1.6)

15 (3.3)

13 (1.3)

11 (1.1)

 

 II

1064 (42.8)

181 (40.2)

472 (46.1)

411 (40.5)

 

 III

605 (24.3)

128 (28.4)

239 (23.4)

238 (23.4)

 

 NA

781 (31.4)

126 (28.0)

299 (29.2)

356 (35.0)

 

Clinical TNM

    

<0.001

 I

155 (6.2)

26 (5.8)

54 (5.3)

75 (7.4)

 

 II

1591 (63.9)

308 (68.4)

641 (62.7)

642 (63.2)

 

 III

737 (29.6)

114 (25.3)

325 (31.8)

298 (29.3)

 

 NA

6 (0.2)

2 (0.4)

3 (0.3)

1 (0.1)

 

Primary ER

    

<0.001

 Positive

1672 (67.2)

286 (63.6)

803 (78.5)

583 (57.4)

 

 Negative

817 (32.8)

164 (36.4)

220 (21.5)

433 (42.6)

 

Primary PR

    

<0.001

 Positive

1479 (59.4)

268 (59.6)

717 (70.1)

493 (48.6)

 

 Negative

1010 (40.6)

182 (40.4)

306 (29.9)

522 (51.4)

 

Primary Ki67

    

<0.001

 <14%

314 (12.6)

73 (16.2)

155 (15.2)

86 (8.5)

 

 ≥14%

2145 (86.2)

370 (82.2)

860 (84.1)

915 (90.1)

 

 NA

30 (1.2)

7 (1.6)

8 (0.8)

15 (1.4)

 

Breast Surgery

    

<0.001

 Mastectomy

2191 (88.0)

376 (83.6)

891 (87.1)

924 (90.9)

 

 BCS

298 (12.0)

74 (16.4)

132 (12.9)

92 (9.1)

 

Axillary Surgery

    

0.086

 SLNB

220 (8.8)

30 (6.7)

87 (8.5)

103 (10.1)

 

 ALND ± SLNB

2269 (91.2)

420 (93.3)

936 (91.5)

913 (89.9)

 

NAC strategy

    

<0.001

 Anthracycline + Taxane

1670 (67.1)

342 (76.0)

822 (80.4)

506 (49.8)

 

 Anthracycline

161 (6.5)

41 (9.1)

77 (7.5)

43 (4.2)

 

 Taxane

646 (26.0)

64 (14.2)

118 (11.5)

464 (45.7)

 

 Others/NA

12 (0.5)

3 (0.7)

6 (0.6)

3 (0.3)

 

NAC Cycle

    

0.450

 4–6

1562 (62.8)

281 (62.4)

629 (61.5)

652 (64.2)

 

 >6

927 (37.2)

169 (37.6)

394 (38.5)

364 (35.8)

 

Breast pCR

    

<0.001

 No

1797 (72.2)

352 (78.2)

812 (79.4)

633 (62.3)

 

 Yes

692 (27.8)

98 (21.8)

211 (20.6)

383 (37.7)

 
  1. HER2 human epidermal growth factor receptor-2, IDC invasive ductal carcinoma, NA not available, ER estrogen receptor, PR progesterone receptor, TBCS breast-conserving surgery, SLNB sentinel lymph node biopsy, ALND axillary lymph node dissection, NAC neoadjuvant chemotherapy, pCR pathological complete response.
  2. aHER2 status is according to core needle biopsy specimen before NAC.
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