Outcomes of Hispanic women with lymph-node positive, HER2 positive breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and trastuzumab in Mexico

Abstract Introduction Evidence regarding the outcomes of Hispanic women with breast cancer is lacking. We analyzed women with HER2+ disease treated with trastuzumab-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in Mexico. Methods 244 patients were included. Outcomes were compared between patients who achieved pathologic complete response (pCR) (n = 119), or less than pCR (n = 125). Patients with noninvasive (ypT0/is, ypN0) residual disease were also analyzed. Results 119 (48.8%) patients achieved pCR. pCR was the only factor associated with improved 3 year survival (98.1% vs 92.3%: P = 0.02). Survival was better in patients with ypT0/is, ypN0 response than in those with residual invasive disease (p  Conclusions Response rates to trastuzumab based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in Hispanics mimic that of other ethnic groups. This underlines the fact that access to treatment, rather than ethnicity, is the main prognostic factor in this population.