Predicting prognosis of patients with triple‑negative breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy based on inflammatory status at different time points: A propensity score matching analysis

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype of breast cancer with limited targeted treatment options, making the identification of reliable prognostic markers crucial for improving patient outcomes. The present study aimed to assess the predictive ability of pre-chemotherapy and pre-surgery inflammatory status on the prognosis of patients with TNBC undergoing neoadjuvant therapy. A total of 422 patients with TNBC who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy at the Inner Mongolia People's Hospital between January 2017 and December 2022 were selected for analysis. Fasting venous blood samples were collected 1 day prior to chemotherapy and 1 day prior to surgery to assess and calculate inflammatory markers, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and systemic inflammation response index (SIRI). The optimal cut-off values of the inflammatory markers were determined using receiver operating characteristic curves. Survival analysis was used to evaluate the differences in survival and significant prognostic factors. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed to further asses the prognostic value of the relevant factors. Survival analysis indicated that patients with high pre-chemotherapy and pre-surgery NLR, PLR, SII and SIRI scores exhibited shorter overall survival (OS) rates compared with those with low scores (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor-node-metastasis stage, pathological complete response and pre-surgery SII were independent prognostic factors for OS. Following PSM, the area under the curve for SII was 0.642 and patients with high SII scores exhibited shorter OS rates than those with low scores (χ²=8.452; P=0.004). Therefore, these results indicated that both pre-chemotherapy and pre-surgery inflammatory statuses are associated with the OS of patients with TNBC undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, notably pre-surgery SII.