Impact of time to local recurrence on the occurrence of metastasis in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy: A random forest survival approach.

Background: We studied the relationship between time to ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in patients with breast cancer treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Methods: Between 2002 and 2012, 1199 patients with primary breast cancer were treated with NAC. Clinical, radiological and pathological data were retrieved from medical records.