Publications

Introduction Metabolicsyndrome (MetS)notably influencesbreast cancerpatho genesis, treatment efficacy, andprognosis. This study investigates theassociation betweenMetS and the rate of pathological complete response (pCR) following neoadjuvantchemotherapy (NACT) inpatientswith locallyadvancedbreastcancer (LABC). Objective TostudytheresponseofNACTinpatientswithLABCwithorwithoutMetS. Materials andMethods In this prospective observational study (June 2022 June2024), 188patientswithLABCplanned forNACTwereenrolled. Participants were stratified into twocohorts basedon theNCEPATP III (National Cholesterol EducationProgramAdultTreatmentPanelIII)Criteria:ArmA(MetS,n¼91)andArmB (non-MetS,n¼97).TheprimaryoutcomewastheachievementofpCR.Associations wereanalyzedusingchi-square tests,withunivariateandmultivariateanalyses to identifypredictivefactors. Results TheoverallpCRratewas20.2%(n¼38/188).Alower,thoughnotstatistically significant,pCRratewasobservedintheMetSgroup(15.4%,n¼14/91)comparedwith the non-MetS group (24.7%, n¼24/97) (p¼0.078). Subgroup analyses revealed significant interactions:HER2-negativepatientswithMetShadasignificantly lower pCRratethantheirnon-MetScounterparts(p¼0.049).Furthermore,premenopausal womenwithoutMetSachievedsignificantlyhigherpCRrates thanpremenopausal womenwithMetS(p¼0.008).Onmultivariateanalysisadjustingforageandmeno pausal status,MetSwasnotanindependentpredictorofpCR(oddsratio:0.65,95% confidenceinterval:0.30–1.39,p¼0.27).ERandHER2statusalonedidnot showa significant independentassociationwithpCR