Purpose: The 8th edition American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) prognostic staging system (PS) has been validated numerous times; however, the prognostic value of PS for breast cancer based on molecular subtype has rarely been explored. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of PS in Chinese patients with luminal B-like human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer.
Methods: A total of 407 eligible cases were included in the study. All of the cases were restaged using the 8th edition AJCC Anatomic Staging System (AS) and PS. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to calculate estimated survival and the Log rank test was used to compare the survival differences between groups.
Results: The 5-year disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 90.3% and 93.5%, respectively, and there were statistically significant differences in the 5-year DSS and 5-year OS rates among the different anatomic and prognostic stage groups. The application of the PS resulted in the assignment of 215 (52.8%) patients to a different group. Different prognostic stage groups restaged from anatomic Stage III had significant differences in both DSS (χ ² = 4.366, p = 0.037) and OS (χ ² = 7.549, p = 0.006); additionally, different prognostic stage groups from the anatomic Stage II group had significant differences in DSS (χ ² = 7.724, p = 0.021) but no significant differences in OS (χ ² = 5.182, p = 0.075). However, different prognostic stage groups from anatomic Stage I had no significant differences in either DSS (χ ²= 0.159, p = 0.690) or OS (χ ² = 0.099, p = 0.753).
Conclusion: The 8th edition AJCC PS refined the anatomic stage grouping in luminal B-like HER2-negative breast cancer and could lead to a more personalized approach to breast cancer treatment.
Keywords: breast cancer, staging system, prognosis, survival outcome, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2