Absolute Lymphocyte Count Changes During Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy are Associated with Prognosis of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients
Abstract Purpose: To investigate the relation of absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) changes during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer patients and their prognosis.Methods: From January 2010 to December 2019, patients diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer and treated with trastuzumab-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) were included in this retrospective cohort study. The ALC ratio was Blood cell count estimates before and after NAC were evaluated to calculate the ALC ratio. The optimal cut-off for the ALC ratio was identified using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and Youden’s index. The relationship between the ALC ratio and disease-free survival (DFS) was measured using the Kaplan–Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox proportional hazards model.Results: 71 HER2 breast cancer patients were analyzed. The cut-off value of the ALC ratio was decided as 1.109. The median follow-up period was 53.1 (range: 5.1-111.5) months. The high-ALC ratio group showed superior survival rates to the low-ALC ratio group (p=0.0242). The 5-year DFS rates were 89.1% and 63.3% in the high- and low-ALC ratio group, respectively. The ALC ratio was nominated as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis (p=0.0052).Conclusion: HER2-positive breast cancer patients who showed a higher ALC ratio during trastuzumab-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy were associated to better survival.