Abstract
Background: Peritumoral vascular invasion (PVI) may assist in assigning optimal adjuvant systemic therapy for women with early breast cancer. Patients and methods: Patients participated in two International Breast Cancer Study Group randomized trials testing chemoendocrine adjuvant therapies in premenopausal (trial VIII) or postmenopausal (trial IX) node-negative breast cancer. PVI was assessed by institutional pathologists and/or central review on hematoxylin-eosin-stained slides in 99% of patients (analysis cohort 2754 patients, median follow-up >9 years). Results: PVI, present in 23% of the tumors, was associated with higher grade tumors and larger tumor size (trial IX only). Presence of PVI increased locoregional and distant recurrence and was significantly associated with poorer disease-free survival. The adverse prognostic impact of PVI in trial VIII was limited to premenopausal patients with endocrine-responsive tumors randomized to therapies not containing goserelin, and conversely the beneficial effect of goserelin was limited to patients whose tumors showed PVI. In trial IX, all patients received tamoxifen: the adverse prognostic impact of PVI was limited to patients with receptor-negative tumors regardless of chemotherapy. Conclusion: Adequate endocrine adjuvant therapy appears to abrogate the adverse impact of PVI in node-negative disease, while PVI may identify patients who will benefit particularly from adjuvant therapy.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 245-254 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Annals of Oncology |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2010 |
Keywords
- Adjuvant therapy
- Breast cancer
- Endocrine responsiveness
- Metastasis
- Prognosis
- Vascular invasion
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Hematology
- Medicine(all)