Differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis between breast neuroendocrine carcinoma and breast invasive ductal carcinoma: A multicentre population‐based study from China

AIM: We constructed a multicentre cohort in China to analyse the differences in clinical characteristics, treatment strategies and prognoses between breast neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast. METHODS: All patients with early‐stage breast cancer who attended three hospitals in Beijing from 2000 to 2018 were included in the study. We used propensity score matching to make a 1:3 match between NEC and IDC. RESULTS: After propensity score matching, 153 patients with IDC and 51 patients with NEC were analysed. Multivariate Cox regression showed that compared to patients with IDC, patients with NEC had a worse disease‐free survival (HR = 2.94, 95% CI: 1.69–5.12, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: NEC patients have a worse disease‐free survival than IDC patients.