Lack of Prognostic Value of Human Epidermal Growth Factor-Like Receptor 2 Status in Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC): a Meta-analysis

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, aggressive form of breast cancer which is more likely to be her-2/neu amplified. While the her-2/neu status has been utilised to predict prognosis, the published data are inconsistent.The present meta-analysis was conducted to determine whether the her-2/neu status predicts outcomes. Paperswere selected from the PubMed database based on defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Parameters such astotal patients, follow-up time and outcome statistics (i.e. overall survival (OS), relapse-free survival (RFS) werecollected. The analysis included 6 studies with 2,838 IBC patients. The summary hazards ratio (HR) estimatingthe association of OS with HER-2-positive disease was 0.96 (95% confidence interval (95%CI: 0.85-1.10)), withsimilar findings for RFS (HR=0.81, 95%CI: 0.61-1.09). No obvious statistical heterogeneity was detected. Thismeta-analysis suggests that HER-2-positive status is not an independent adverse prognostic factor for survivalamong IBC patient cases.