Residual cancer burden index and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte subtypes in triple-negative breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Purpose There is a need to refine the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to study the influence of the tumor microenvironment. We evaluated the prognostic value of pathological and immune markers in TNBC with residual disease (RD) after NAC. Methods In a series of 186 TNBC patients treated by NAC, we assessed the prognostic value of the Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) index. In 109 patients with RD, we studied the impact of clinicopathological features and tumor immune response in the residual tumor on overall survival (OS) and distant recurrence-free interval (DRFI). Results In the whole group, the OS and DRFI, at 3 years, were statistically different between the different classes of RCB ( P = 0.0004 and P