National Cancer Database analysis of trimodal therapy versus chemotherapy only in patients with metastatic inflammatory breast cancer

Systemic therapy is standard for metastatic inflammatory breast cancer (mIBC), but the role of locoregional therapy in survival remains unclear. Retrospective analysis of the National Cancer Database (NCDB) compared overall survival of MIBC patients receiving trimodal therapy versus chemotherapy alone. Among 2872 patients with a MIBC diagnosis between 2004 and 2021, 403 (14%) received trimodal therapy and 2469 (86%) received chemotherapy alone. Median overall survival was 47.0 months with trimodality therapy versus 34.4 months with chemotherapy alone (p< 0.001). Receiving trimodal therapy was associated with a 28% lower hazard of mortality compared to chemotherapy alone (aHR 0.72; 95% CI 0.62-0.84). The authors conclude that in this NCDB cohort of MIBC patients, receipt of trimodal therapy improved OS compared with chemotherapy only.