A real-world US study of recurrence risks using combined clinicopathological features in HR-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer.

Breast cancer is frequently diagnosed early, at a stage when patients can be cured. However, some patients have breast cancers (tumors) with a high risk of recurrence. When cancers come back, a cure is often not possible. This study looks at multiple high-risk tumor features and the risk of cancer returning, in the most common breast cancer type, known as hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. In patients with high-risk tumors, breast cancer returned in about 11.9% of patients within 2 years and in 29.8% of patients at 5 years. The risk of recurrence or death was three-times higher in patients with high-risk tumors compared to patients with nonhigh-risk tumors. These results suggest better treatments are needed to prevent breast cancers from coming back in patients at high risk of recurrence.