Utility of (18)F-FDG PET/CT for predicting pathologic complete response in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is a predictor of improved outcomes in breast cancer. In patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) -negative breast cancer, the response to NAC is variable and mostly limited. This study was an investigation of the predictive relevance of parameters of (18)F-FDG PET/CT for the pCR to NAC in patients with HR-positive, HER2–negative breast cancer. Methods: AH total of 109 consecutive HR-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer patients who were treated with NAC were enrolled in this prospective cohort study. The relationships between pretreatment (18)F-FDG PET/CT and clinical outcomes including pathologic response to NAC were evaluated. Results: All patients finished their planned NAC cycles and eight patients (7.3%) achieved pCR. In the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, pSUVmax exhibited high sensitivity and specificity for predicting pCR. Furthermore, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed pSUVmax as a predictive factor for pCR (hazard ratio = 17.452; 95% CI = 1.847–164.892; p = 0.013). CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that (18)F-FDG PET/CT pSUVmax is a predictive factor for pCR of HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer to NAC.