This is a prospective examination of ribonucleic acid (RNA) extracted from tumor material of breast cancer patients treated with a neo-adjuvant therapy. The RNA will be analysed for expression of estrogen receptor (ER 1), progesterone receptor (PgR), HER2 and Ki-67 with MammaTyper™.

According to the determined values for the individual parameters at least 4 subtypes can be distinguished to date

• Luminal A-type
• Luminal B-type
• HER2-type
• Triple-negative-type As non-clinical endpoint, the agreement of new subtyping with Immunohistochemical methods will be evaluated.

As clinical objective, the 5 year Distant metastasis free survival (DMFS) and Overall survival (OS) will be reevaluated according to the new subtyping.

Tumor material collected from patients who received neoadjuvant therapy either with four cycles of doxorubicin 60 mg/m² plus pemetrexed 500 mg/m² on day 1 every 21 days followed by four cycles of docetaxel 100 mg/m² on day 1 every 21 days or four cycles of doxorubicin 60 mg/m² plus cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m² on day 1 every 21 days followed by four cycles of docetaxel 100 mg/m² on day 1 every 21 days will be re-analyzed with the MammaTyper Kit. The Kit is an in-vitro molecular diagnostic test for molecular subtyping of breast cancers into Luminal A & B, HER2 and Triple negative. It allows quantitative detection of the RNA expression status of the genes for estrogen receptor (ESR1), PgR, HER2 and Ki-67 on the basis of their mRNA present in the samples. This prospective diagnostic study will investigate the subtyping-results of the MammaTyper™ analysis and will compare them to the subtyping of the former immunohistochemical analysis performed. Based on the MammaTyper™-subtypes the efficiency of the therapy regimen and the outcome will be re-evaluated from the patient data.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Women aged 18-70 years with histologically confirmed primary invasive breast cancer stages T2-T4/N0-N2/M0 with a tumor size of ≥ 2 cm as measured by ultrasound
• The patient provides a written informed consent for analysis of tumor material

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior anticancer therapy with an anthracycline or other prior antitumor therapy for breast cancer
• Inflammatory or exulcerating breast cancer
• A second primary malignancy [except carcinoma in situ (CIS) of the cervix or adequately treated nonmelanoma skin cancer] unless diagnosed and treated ≥ 5 years ago with no evidence of recurrence
• Any serious concomitant systemic disorder

See Eligibility Criteria