Differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis between breast neuroendocrine carcinoma and breast invasive ductal carcinoma: A multicentre population-based study from China

Abstract

Aim: We constructed a multicentre cohort in China to analyse the differences in clinical characteristics, treatment strategies and prognoses between breast neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast. Methods: All patients with early-stage breast cancer who attended three hospitals in Beijing from 2000 to 2018 were included in the study. We used propensity score matching to make a 1:3 match between NEC and IDC. Results: After propensity score matching, 153 patients with IDC and 51 patients with NEC were analysed. Multivariate Cox regression showed that compared to patients with IDC, patients with NEC had a worse disease-free survival (HR = 2.94, 95% CI: 1.69–5.12, p < 0.001). Conclusion: NEC patients have a worse disease-free survival than IDC patients.