Efficacy and prognostic factors of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer

Table 1 The association between the expressions of karyopherin A2 and clinicopathology of patients with triple-negative breast cancer, n (%)

Clinical data	Cases	KPNA2 positive expression rate	χ2	P value
Age (yr)			2.868	0.090
< 50	55	33 (60.00)
≥ 50	63	47 (74.60)
BMI (kg/m2)			0.271	0.602
< 22	60	42 (70.00)
≥ 22	58	38 (65.52)
Karnofsky score (points)			0.088	0.767
< 70	52	36 (69.23)
≥ 70	66	44 (66.67)
Differentiation degree			0.393	0.531
High differentiation	51	33 (64.71)
Medium low differentiation	67	47 (70.15)
Intravascular tumor thrombus			8.511	0.004
Yes	25	23 (92.00)
No	93	57 (61.29)
Tumor size			0.136	0.712
> 5 cm	53	35 (66.04)
≤ 5 cm	65	45 (69.23)
TNM stages			7.863	0.005
III	94	58 (61.70)
IV	24	22 (91.67)
Pathological type			0.301	0.583
Invasive ductal carcinoma	96	64 (66.67)
Other	22	16 (72.73)
Ki-67			2.764	0.096
≤ 14%	37	29 (78.38)
> 14%	81	51 (62.96)
P53			0.034	0.854
Positive	79	54 (68.35)
Negative	39	26 (66.67)

KPNA2: Karyopherin A2; BMI: Body mass index; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis.

Table 2 The association between the expression of SRY-related HMG box-2 and clinicopathology of patients with triple-negative breast cancer, n (%)

Clinical data	Cases	SOX2 positive expression rate	χ2	P value
Age (yr)			0.000	0.994
< 50	55	41 (74.55)
≥ 50	63	47 (74.60)
BMI (kg/m2)			0.545	0.460
< 22	60	43 (71.67)
≥ 22	58	45 (77.59)
Karnofsky score (points)			0.574	0.449
< 70	52	37 (71.15)
≥ 70	66	51 (77.27)
Differentiation degree			0.000	0.988
High differentiation	51	38 (74.51)
Medium low differentiation	67	50 (74.63)
Intravascular tumor thrombus			7.689	0.006
Yes	25	24 (96.00)
No	93	64 (68.82)
Tumor size			0.420	0.517
> 5 cm	53	38 (71.70)
≤ 5 cm	65	50 (76.92)
TNM stages			7.180	0.007
III	94	65 (69.15)
IV	24	23 (95.83)
Pathological type			0.049	0.825
Invasive ductal carcinoma	96	72 (75.00)
Other	22	16 (72.73)
Ki-67			0.073	0.787
≤ 14%	37	27 (72.97)
> 14%	81	61 (75.31)
P53			0.741	0.389
Positive	79	57 (72.15)
Negative	39	31 (79.49)

SOX2: SRY-related HMG box-2; BMI: Body mass index; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis.

Table 3 Correlation analysis

KPNA2 expression	SOX2 expression		rs	P value
	Positive	Negative
Positive	72	8	0.514	0.000
Negative	16	22

KPNA2: Karyopherin A2; SOX2: SRY-related HMG box-2.

Table 4 The comparison of clinical data between the observation and control groups, n (%)

Clinical data	Observation group (n = 60)	Control group (n = 58)	t/χ2	P value
Age (yr)	54.49 ± 4.29	55.70 ± 5.10	-1.396	0.165
BMI (kg/m2)	22.02 ± 2.05	22.10 ± 2.54	-0.189	0.851
Karnofsky score (points)	74.40 ± 5.12	75.52 ± 6.02	-1.090	0.278
Differentiation degree			1.188	0.276
High differentiation	23 (38.33)	28 (48.28)
Medium low differentiation	37 (61.67)	30 (51.72)
Intravascular tumor thrombus			0.337	0.562
Yes	14 (23.33)	11 (18.97)
No	46 (78.33)	47 (81.03)
Tumor size			0.576	0.448
> 5 cm	29 (48.33)	24 (41.38)
≤ 5 cm	31 (51.67)	34 (58.62)
TNM stages			0.009	0.926
III	48 (80.00)	46 (79.31)
IV	12 (20.00)	12 (20.69)
Pathological type			0.735	0.391
Invasive ductal carcinoma	47 (78.33)	49 (84.48)
Other	13 (21.67)	9 (15.52)
KPNA2 expression			0.016	0.899
Positive	41 (68.33)	39 (67.24)
Negative	19 (31.67)	19 (32.76)
SOX2 expression			0.012	0.914
Positive	45 (75.00)	43 (74.14)
Negative	15 (25.00)	15 (25.86)
Ki-67			0.518	0.472
≤ 14%	17 (28.33)	20 (34.48)
> 14%	43 (71.67)	38 (65.52)
P53			0.210	0.647
Positive	39 (65.00)	40 (68.97)
Negative	21 (35.00)	18 (31.03)

KPNA2: Karyopherin A2; SOX2: SRY-related HMG box-2; BMI: Body mass index; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis.

Table 5 Comparison of short-term therapeutic effects between the two groups, n (%)

Group	Cases	CR	PR	SD	PD	Z	P value
Observation group	60	0 (0.00)	35 (58.33)	19 (31.67)	6 (10.00)	-2.183	0.029
Control group	58	0 (0.00)	23 (39.66)	23 (39.66)	12 (20.69)

CR: Complete response; PR: Partial response.

Table 6 Comparison of tumor markers before and after chemotherapy between the two groups (mean ± SD)

Group	Cases	CEA (mg/L)		CA19-9 (kU/L)		CA125 (kU/L)
		Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment
Observation group	60	38.49 ± 6.12	11.40 ± 2.32a	50.30 ± 12.21	19.92 ± 3.42a	163.30 ± 34.43	54.30 ± 12.28a
control group	58	40.02 ± 7.05	20.24 ± 2.50a	52.29 ± 11.73	28.38 ± 2.95a	168.29 ± 37.71	79.10 ± 14.42a
t		-1.260	-19.919	-0.902	-14.368	-0.751	-10.070
P value		0.210	0.000	0.369	0.000	0.454	0.000

^aP < 0.05 vs before treatment.

CA: Cancer antigen; CEA: carcinoembryonic antigen.

Table 7 Multivariate analysis of the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer

Factors		SE	Walds	P value	RR (95%CI)
TNM staging	0.454	0.102	19.811	0.000	1.575 (1.289-1.923)
Degree of differentiation	0.322	0.104	9.586	0.000	1.380 (1.125-1.692)
Lymph node metastasis	0.312	0.112	7.760	0.000	1.366 (1.097-1.702)
KPNA2	0.360	0.121	8.852	0.000	1.433 (1.131-1.817)
SOX2	0.344	0.132	6.792	0.000	1.411 (1.089-1.827)
Chemotherapy regimens	-0.543	0.142	14.623	0.000	0.581 (0.440-0.767)

KPNA2: Karyopherin A2; SOX2: SRY-related HMG box-2; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis; RR: Relative risk.