Certain somatic alterations in breast cancer can define prognosis and response to therapy. This study investigated the frequencies, prognostic effects, and predictive effects of known cancer somatic mutations using a randomized, adjuvant, phase III clinical trial dataset.

The FinHER trial was a phase III, randomized adjuvant breast cancer trial involving 1010 women. Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–positive breast cancer were further randomized to 9 weeks of trastuzumab or no trastuzumab. Seven hundred five of 1010 tumors had sufficient DNA for genotyping of 70 somatic hotspot mutations in 20 genes using mass spectrometry. Distant disease-free survival (DDFS), overall survival (OS), and interactions with trastuzumab were explored with Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. All statistical tests were two-sided.

Median follow-up was 62 months. Of 705 tumors, 687 were successfully genotyped. PIK3CA mutations (exons 1, 2, 4, 9, 13, 18, and 20) were present in 25.3% (174 of 687) and TP53 mutations in 10.2% (70 of 687). Few other mutations were found: three ERBB2 and single cases of KRAS, ALK, STK11/LKB1, and AKT2. PIK3CA mutations were associated with estrogen receptor positivity (P < .001) and the luminal-A phenotype (P = .04) but were not statistically significantly associated with prognosis (DDFS: hazard ratio [HR] = 0.88, 95% confidence [CI] = 0.58 to 1.34, P = .56; OS: HR = 0.603, 95% CI = .32 to 1.13, P = .11), although a statistically significant nonproportional prognostic effect was observed for DDFS (P = .002). PIK3CA mutations were not statistically significantly associated with trastuzumab benefit (P_interaction: DDFS P = .14; OS P = .24).

In this dataset, targeted genotyping revealed only two alterations at a frequency greater than 10%, with other mutations observed infrequently. PIK3CA mutations were associated with a better outcome, however this effect disappeared after 3 years. There were no statistically significant associations with trastuzumab benefit.