A Randomized Phase III Clinical Trial Evaluating Post-Mastectomy Chest Wall and Regional Nodal XRT and Post-Lumpectomy Regional Nodal XRT in Patients with Positive Axillary Nodes Before Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Who Convert to Pathologically Negative Axillary Nodes After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
Objective
The primary objective is to evaluate whether the addition of chest wall + regional nodal radiation therapy (XRT) after mastectomy or breast + regional nodal XRT after breast conserving surgery will significantly reduce the rate of events for invasive breast cancer recurrence-free interval (IBC-RFI) in patients who present with histologically positive axillary nodes but convert to histologically negative axillary nodes following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Study Arms
- Active Comparator: Group 1A Lumpectomy: no regional nodal XRT with WBI
- No Intervention: Group 1B Mastectomy: No regional nodal or chestwall XRT
- Experimental: Group 2A lumpectomy: Regional nodal XRT with WBI
- Experimental: Group 2B Mastectomy: Regional nodal XRT and chestwall XRT
Eligibility
- Patient must have clinically T1-3, N1 breast cancer at the time of diagnosis (before neoadjuvant therapy); clinical axillary nodal involvement can be assessed by palpation, ultrasound, CT scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) scan, or PET/CT scan.
- Patient must have had pathologic confirmation of axillary nodal involvement at presentation (before neoadjuvant therapy) based on either a positive fine needle aspirate (FNA) (demonstrating malignant cells) or positive core needle biopsy (demonstrating invasive adenocarcinoma); the FNA or core needle biopsy can be performed either by palpation or by image guidance; documentation of axillary nodal positivity by sentinel node biopsy (before neoadjuvant therapy) is not permitted.
- Patients must have had estrogen receptor (ER) analysis performed on the primary breast tumor before neoadjuvant therapy according to current American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)/College of American Pathologists (CAP) guideline recommendations for hormone receptor testing; if negative for ER, assessment of progesterone receptor (PgR) must also be performed according to current ASCO/CAP guideline recommendations for hormone receptor testing (http://www.asco.org).
- Patients must have had HER2 testing performed on the primary breast tumor before neoadjuvant chemotherapy according to the current ASCO/CAP guideline recommendations for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 testing in Breast Cancer (http://www.asco.org); patients who have a primary tumor that is either HER2-positive or HER2-negative are eligible.
- Patient must have completed a minimum of 8 weeks of standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisting of an anthracycline and/or taxane-based regimen.
- For patients who receive adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery, a maximum of 12 weeks of intended chemotherapy may be administered but must be completed before randomization; (if treatment delays occur, chemotherapy must be completed within 14 weeks); the dose and schedule of the adjuvant chemotherapy are at the investigator's discretion; Note: It is preferred that all intended chemotherapy be administered in the neoadjuvant setting.
- Patients with HER2-positive tumors must have received neoadjuvant anti-HER2 therapy (either with all or with a portion of the neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen), unless medically contraindicated.
- At the time of definitive surgery, all removed axillary nodes must be histologically free from cancer
- Patients with pathologic staging of ypN0(i+) or ypN0(mol+) are eligible. (Note: Postneoadjuvant therapy is designated with a "yp" prefix.)
- Patients who have undergone either a total mastectomy or a lumpectomy are eligible.
