Neoadjuvant chemotherapy reduces the levels of HMGB1 and E-cadherin in patients with breast cancer

This study investigated the changes in serum tumor marker levels in patients with breast cancer (BC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and their potential as prognostic factors in NACT. A total of 134 consecutive patients with BC treated at our hospital between January 2019 and December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were treated with NACT based on the docetaxel, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide (TEC) regimen and assessed for marker levels, T cell subsets, and therapeutic outcomes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to evaluate the predictive performance of the markers. Outcome assessments showed that NACT effectively reduced the tumor size, leading to increased complete remission, partial remission, stable disease, and significantly reduced disease progression. Improved immune function has also been observed after NACT. The levels of two (E-cadherin and HMGB1) out of five markers (CA153, CK19, CEA, E-cadherin, and HMGB1) were significantly reduced after NACT before surgery compared with those at admission, suggesting that NACT modulates the levels of biomarkers. ROC analysis revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) of HMGB1 and E-cadherin combination was 0.87 for discrimination of therapeutic response with a sensitivity and specificity of 91.3% and 88.4%, respectively. Serum tumor marker levels were reduced after NACT in patients with BC. The reduction was most prominent for HMGB1, followed by E-cadherin. These biomarkers can be used to predict the therapeutic response to NACT with an AUC of 0.87, thus offering a new tool to monitor treatment progress in NACT for patients with BC.