Second-harmonic generation directionality is associated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in breast cancer core needle biopsies

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is routinely administered to subsets of breast cancer patients, including triple negative (TN) or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) cancers. After NACT and subsequent surgical resection, 5% to 30% of patients have no residual invasive carcinoma, termed pathological complete response. Unfortunately, many patients experience little-to-no response after NACT and unnecessarily suffer its side effects. Methods are needed to predict an individual patient’s response to NACT. Core needle biopsies, taken before NACT, consist of tumor cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix. We performed second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of fibrillar collagen in core needle biopsy sections as a possible predictor of response to NACT. The ratio of forward-to-backward scattering (F/B) SHG was assessed in the “tumor bulk” and “tumor–host interface” in HER2+ and TN core needle biopsy sections. Patient response was classified post-treatment using the Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) score. In HER2+ biopsies, RCB class was associated with F/B derived from the tumor–stromal interface, but not tumor bulk. F/B was not associated with RCB class in TN biopsies. These findings suggest that F/B from needle biopsy sections may be a useful predictor of which patients will respond favorably to NACT, with the potential to help reduce overtreatment.