Is adjuvant chemotherapy omissible in women with T1–2 stage, node-positive, luminal a type breast cancer?

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether hormonal breast cancer therapy without systemic chemotherapy is feasible in adjuvant settings in luminal A breast cancer. Methods: A database of 879 patients who underwent breast cancer surgery enrolled between January 2003 and December 2011 was reviewed. Patients with luminal A cancers were selected and grouped into those who received adjuvant hormonal therapy with (group C+) or without (group C-) adjuvant systemic therapy. Results: In a multivariable analysis, axillary lymph node (ALN) metastasis was the only independent factor that revealed significantly different between the two groups in disease-free survival (DFS). The 5-year cumulative DFS was 82.3 versus 76.2% (P50.700) and overall survival (OS) was 83.9 versus 100% (P50.483) for C- versus C+ breast cancer, respectively. Conclusion: In our study, adjuvant chemotherapy in luminal A, T1-2Nz cancer showed no significant difference for DFS. We believe that the role of adjuvant chemotherapy for these women with hormonal therapy might have little benefit.