Correlation of TROP-2 expression with clinico-pathological features and outcomes in HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Abstract

Background: Limited data exists about the associations between TROP2 protein, clinico-pathological characteristics, and outcomes in patients with early HR+/HER2- BC.

Patients and methods: TROP2 membranous expression was assessed on tumour biopsy by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 70 consecutive patients with HR+/HER2- BC who are eligible to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). TROP2 expression was correlated to initial clinico-pathological parameters and pathological response post- NAC. Furthermore, Transcriptomics analysis of TACSTD2 using SCAN-B and GSE81538 datasets was performed and correlated with clinico-pathological parameters and survival.

Results: All patients showed TROP2 expression, with intermediate and high expression in 68.57% and 31.43%, respectively. High TROP2 expression showed significant correlation with high Ki-67 pre-NAC (p=0.017), while no significant correlation with pCR or RCB. High TACSTD2 expression was associated with significantly lower histological grade (p<0.0001), earlier tumour stage (p<0.0001), smaller tumour size (<20 mm, p˂0.0001), lower Ki-67 (p<0.0001), and longer overall-survival (HR= 0.76; p=0.0008), recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR=0.64; p=0.0001) and distant-RFS (HR=0.64; p=0.0011).

Conclusion: In this study, TROP2 expression by IHC was observed in all HR+/HER2- BC cases, and was not significantly correlated with pCR to NAC. In contrast, TACSTD2 expression, which was significantly positively correlated with survival in the same population, suggesting a favorable prognostic value at the transcript level. This finding warrants further investigation in future studies, particularly focusing on TACSTD2 expression at the mRNA rather than the protein level.