Breast cancer in young women has been shown to have an aggressive behavior and poor prognosis.

To evaluate the outcomes of young hormone receptor (HR)-positive patients with breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), and the oncologic efficacy of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists.

This retrospective study involved a prospectively enrolled cohort. We included patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer who were treated with NAC followed by curative surgery at the Samsung Medical Center and Samsung Changwon Hospital between January 2006 and December 2017. Among patients with HR-positive and human epidermal grow factor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer, we analyzed the characteristics and oncology outcomes between the patients equal to or younger than 35 years and the patients older than 35 years.

Among 431 patients with NAC and HR-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, 78 were 35 years old or younger, and 353 patients were older than 35 years. The median follow-up was 71.0 months. There was no statistically significant difference in disease free survival (DFS, P = 0.565) and overall survival (P = 0.820) between the patients equal to or younger than 35 years and the patients older than 35 years. The two groups differed in that the GnRH agonist was used more frequently in the group of patients equal to or younger than 35 years than in the other group (52.4% vs 11.2%, P < 0.001). Interestingly, for the DFS according to the GnRH agonist in the group of patients equal to or younger than 35 years, patients treated with the GnRH agonist had better DFS (P = 0.037).

Administration of GnRH agonists might improve the DFS rate of HR-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer in the equal to or younger than 35 years group of patients with NAC.

Inflammatory breast carcinoma (IBC) is an aggressive clinical syndrome of invasive breast carcinoma. There is paucity of data regarding the outcomes in IBC.

Analyses of OS and Event-free survival (EFS) in nonmetastatic and metastatic IBC and to find prognostic factors influencing them.

In this single center, retrospective study the data of patients fulfilling the clinical criteria of IBC were retrieved from 2016 to 2021. The impact of prognostic factors on OS and EFS were analysed by log rank test (univariate analysis). The OS and EFS were depicted as Kaplan Meier survival curves.

There were 22 patients with IBC. Median follow-up was 17 months. The median OS was significantly better in non-metastatic(M0) compared to metastatic IBC (25 months vs 6 months) with 3year OS rate of 50% vs 0% respectively. The post-menopausal status, grade 2 histology and trimodality treatment showed better outcome while N3 stage at diagnosis had worse outcome in M0 group. The lesser HR expression, lesser pCR rates, higher N3 proportion, liver metastasis and multiple metastatic site involvement contributed to the worse outcome observed in this study.

The aggressive clinicopathological features of IBC in the present study resulted in less favourable outcome compared to literature review. Improved outcome with trimodality highlights the emergent need for additional targeted therapy to improve pCR and operability.

Cancer stem cells in breast cancer migrating to the bone marrow may cause future metastasis, particularly during periods of decreased immunity. Natural killer (NK) cells have a role in immune surveillance and are able to target cancer stem cells. The present study reported a case in which NK cell-based autologous immune enhancement therapy was used combined with conventional treatments in a patient with stage IIIA breast cancer, yielding >28 months of disease-free survival. However, there was a gradual decline in the in vitro expansion of NK cells with subsequent chemotherapeutic treatments. As this NK cell decline following chemotherapy may contribute to cancer cell immune evasion and future metastasis; modifying current cancer therapies in order to avoid potentially compromising the immune system may lead to improved treatment outcomes.

Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare, yet highly aggressive form of breast cancer, which accounts for less than 5% of all locally advanced presentations. The clinical presentation of inflammatory breast cancer often differs significantly from that of noninflammatory breast cancer; however, immunohistochemistry reveals few, if any, distinguishing features. The more aggressive triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer subtypes are overrepresented in inflammatory breast cancer compared with noninflammatory breast cancer, with a poorer prognosis in response to conventional therapies. Despite its name, there remains some controversy regarding the role of inflammation in inflammatory breast cancer. This review summarises the current molecular evidence suggesting that inflammatory signaling pathways are upregulated in this disease, including NF-κB activation and excessive IL-6 production among others, which may provide an avenue for novel therapeutics. The role of the tumor microenvironment, through tumor-associated macrophages, infiltrating lymphocytes, and cancer stem cells is also discussed, suggesting that these tumor extrinsic factors may help account for the differences in behavior between inflammatory breast cancer and noninflammatory breast cancer. While there are various novel treatment strategies already underway in clinical trials, the need for further development of preclinical models of this rare but aggressive disease is paramount.