Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Background: HER2-negative breast cancers expressing low (1-9 %) immunohistochemistry levels of hormone receptors (HR, estrogen and progesterone receptors), remain an uncertain category, being considered either as triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) or HR-positive (HR+) tumors across guidelines or approvals. The issues regarding this clinical subgroup are both prognostic, with the need of a better definition of their clinical outcome, as well as predictive. Methods: The ESME database is a French National cohort of all consecutive patients who initiated a first-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) from 2008 on, in one of the 18 French Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Patients with HER2-negative (0 to 2+, ISH negative) MBC and known estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) expression levels were selected. Primary objective was to evaluate crude overall survival (OS) in HER2-/HR-low (ER and PR 0-9 and not TNBC) MBC pts compared with those with TNBC and HR+ disease defined by ER and PR 1%, and ER ± PR ≥ 10%, respectively. In these 3 populations, predefined secondary objectives were to evaluate PFS under first line chemotherapy (CT), to describe clinical characteristics and the distribution of genetic abnormalities identified at the time of MBC diagnosis. Results: Out of 30,459 patients in the ESME database initiating their MBC treatment between 01/2008 and 01/2021, 19109 patients (2113 TNBC; 228 HR-low; 16768 HR+) were eligible for this analysis. Median follow-up was 58.0 months (95%CI 56.6; 59.0). Median OS were 15.7 months 15.0-16.8, 19.1 months 15.5-22.4 and 44.6 months 43.8-45.5 in the TNBC, HR-low and HR+ subgroups, respectively. The multivariable analysis adjusted on age at MBC diagnosis, pathological grade and subtype, metastatic-free interval, number and sites of metastases and HER2 status (0 vs. 1-2+), identified no significant OS difference between HR-low and TNBC subgroups (HR=0.95, 95%CI 0.79-1.14), while HR+ patients had a better OS than TNBC patients (reference) (HR=0.50, 95%CI 0.47-0.53). Of these 19109 pts, 8910 received first-line CT regimen (1960 TNBC; 195 HR-low; 6755 HR+): taxanes-based: 66.7%, anthracyclines-based: 32.9%, capecitabine: 18%. Median PFS under first line CT were 5.3 (5.1-5.6), 5.1 (4.1-6.2) and 10.2 months (9.9-10.6) for TNBC, HR-low and HR+ subgroups, respectively. In the multivariable analysis adjusted on the same variables, the HR-low subgroup had a statistically poorer PFS compared to TNBC (HR=1.24, 95% CI 1.04-1.49). On the other hand, the HR+ subgroup had a better PFS than the TNBC (HR=0.74, 95%CI 0.70; 0.78). Baseline germline BRCA1 mutations (at MBC diagnosis) were present in 4.5% of the TNBC cases, 2.6% of the HR-low cases, and 0.4% of the HR+ cases. The distribution of germline BRCA2 mutations was more homogeneous between the three groups (0.9% of TNBC cases, 1.3% of HR-low cases and 1.1 % of HR+ cases). Conclusions: In this large cohort, patients with HER2-negative, HR-low MBC seem to share similar general prognosis, oncogenetic features and PFS under standard chemotherapy treatment with TNBC patients. Citation Format: Marie Alexandre, Ludovic Gauthier, Audrey Mailliez, Thibault DE LA MOTTE ROUGE, Thomas Bachelot, Monica Arnedos, Florence Dalenc, Etienne Brain, Jean-Marc Ferrero, Vincent Massard, Isabelle Desmoulins, Marie-Ange Mouret-Reynier, Christelle Levy, Anthony Gonçalves, Marianne Leheurteur, Thierry Petit, Jean-Sébastien Frenel, Lise Bosquet, Suzette Delaloge, William Jacot. Prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics of HER2-negative metastatic breast cancers with low expression of hormone receptors: real world evidence from the French ESME cohort abstract. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO2-05-14.
Alexandre et al. (Thu,) studied this question.