ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the relationship of clinicopathological characteristics with neoadjuvant chemotherapeutic efficacy and prognosis of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) patients. Methods: Medical records of 81 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy for IBC in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital between January 2010 and December 2013, were retrospectively analyzed. Clinicopathological features, response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and prognostic factors were studied by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: The 3-year overall survival rate (OS) and disease-free survival rate (DFS) of patients were 53.1％ and 37.0％, respectively. The pathologic complete response (pCR) rate of patients after accepting neoadjuvant chemotherapy was 13.6％ (11/81). Statistically significant association was observed between pCR and pathological types in IBC (P0.05). Preoperative lymph node stage was an independent prognostic factor of overall survival (OS) and disease- free survival (DFS) in IBC patients (P<0.05). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and lymph vessel tumor emboli were independent factors of DFS (all P<0.05). Conclusion: Clinicopathological characteristics of IBC patients affected chemosensitivity. We could predict the prognosis of these patients by preoperative lymph node stage and lymph vessel tumor emboli and select chemotherapy to achieve the best curative effect.