Background : The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is still unclear. The objective of the current study was to elucidate the effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, pT1b-c/N0-1/M0 ILC.
Methods: Based on Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) database, we identified original 13996 HR-positive, HER2-negative, pT1b-c/N0-1/M0 ILC patients, who were then divided into adjuvant chemotherapy group and control group. End-points were overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific mortality (BCSM). Aiming to minimize the selection bias of baseline characteristics, Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method was used.
Results : In a total of 13996 patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative, pT1b-c/N0-1/M0 ILC, 1800 patients (12.9%) were allocated into adjuvant chemotherapy group and 12196 (87.1%) into control group. Used PSM, the 1800 patients in adjuvant chemotherapy group matched to the 1800 patients in control group. By Kaplan-Meier survival analyses, we observed beneficial effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on OS in original samples ( P =0.001) but ineffectiveness in matched samples ( P =0.400), however, ineffective or even contrary results of adjuvant chemotherapy on BCSM both in original samples (P =0.001) and in matched samples ( P= 0.033). In both original and matched multivariate Cox models, we observed ineffectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy on OS (hazard ratio (HR) for overall mortality = 1.243, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.954-1.619]; P =0.108 and HR=1.227, 95%CI [0.870-1.731]; P =0.244, respectively), unexpectedly promoting effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on BCSM (HR=2.446, 95%CI [1.598-3.742]; P =0.001 and HR=1.791, 95%CI [1.056-3.037]; P = 0.031, respectively). Lymph node metastasis was detrimental to survival in original samples, but had unobvious effect in matched samples. Radiotherapy and standard surgery were beneficial to the survival of patients.
Conclusion: Adjuvant chemotherapy could bring no survival benefit to HR-positive, HER2-negative, pT1b-c/N0-1/M0 ILC, even contribute to BCSM.