Key clinical point: An anthracycline-containing chemotherapy (AC-T) regimen was not associated with a survival benefit compared with 6 cycles of docetaxel/cyclophosphamide (TC6) in an overall cohort of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, high-risk, early breast cancer (BC); however, patients with lobular tumor and ≥3 affected lymph nodes may benefit.
Major finding: Although disease-free survival (DFS) was similar between AC-T and TC6 treatment arms in the overall cohort ( P = .57), the subgroup of patients with lobular tumor and ≥3 affected lymph nodes showed improved DFS with AC-T vs. TC6 (hazard ratio 3.521; P = .003). The frequency of grade 3/4 adverse events was significantly higher in AC-T vs. TC6 treatment arm ( P < .001).
Study details: Findings are from the pooled analysis of two phase 3 studies, SUCCESS-C and PlanB, including 5,924 patients with high-risk HER2-negative invasive early BC w ho were randomly assigned to receive TC6 or AC-T.
Disclosures: The study did not receive any funding. Some authors declared receiving financial and nonfinancial support from several sources.
Source: Gregorio AD et al. The impact of anthracyclines in intermediate and high-risk HER2-negative early breast cancer—a pooled analysis of the randomised clinical trials PlanB and SUCCESS C. Br J Cancer. 2022 (Feb 22). Doi: 10.1038/s41416-021-01690-6