Prognostic Significance of Neutropenia on Day One of Anthracycline-Based Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Operable Breast Cancer

It is currently unknown whether neutropenia during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer is associated with prognosis.We retrospectively analyzed 103 breast cancer patients who were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy including epirubicin-based chemotherapy followed by docetaxel. The association between neutropenia due to epirubicin-based chemotherapy and distant disease-free survival (DDFS) was assessed.Thirty-one patients (30%) demonstrated neutropenia during the epirubicin-based regimen. Patients without neutropenia showed a significantly (p = 0.004) lower 5-year DDFS rate (64%) than those with neutropenia (97%). In addition, multivariate analysis showed that neutropenia is an independent prognostic factor for DDFS (p = 0.02).Neutropenia occurring in early breast cancer patients during the initial neoadjuvant treatment is strongly associated with a better prognosis.