Combinational Treatment of Doxorubicin With Neoadjuvant Docetaxel for Different Subtypes of Patients With Breast Cancer.

Aim: The aim of this study is to characterize the effect of chemotherapy drug doxorubicin with neoadjuvant drug docetaxel for different molecular subtypes.

Methods: A total of 83 patients with late-stage breast cancer were chosen to undergo treatment and compared to these patients to the combinational treatment to identify the molecular characteristics that can predict the responses.

Results: Total response rate is 81.9% (68/83 patients). Among them, 7 patients show pathological complete response of 8.4%, 12 patients show clinical complete response of 14.5%, 49 patients show partial response of 59%, and 15 patients show stable disease of 18.1%. The comparison among different subtypes of breast cancer, including luminal A, luminal B, basal-like, and ERBB2 subtypes, did not show statistical significant differences to the treatment of combinational treatment for the complete response rate, including pathological complete response and clinical complete response. Comparing with luminal A and luminal B subtypes, the ERBB2 and basal-like subtypes have better complete response and response rate rates. The disease-free survival rate and overall survival rate at 29 months after treatment did not show statistical significant differences among different subtypes of patients with breast cancer.

Conclusion: The molecular subtypes of breast cancer can predict responses to the combinational treatment of doxorubicin with docetaxel, and ERBB2 and basal-like subtypes have better response rate and complete response rate. There is correlation of estrogen receptor and KI-67 level changes with response rate as well, where KI-67 high patients are more sensitive to the treatment.