J Korean Surg Soc.  2009 Jul;77(1):37-42. 10.4174/jkss.2009.77.1.37.

Clinicopathologic Characteristics and Prognosis of Early Stage Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Comparison with Non-triple Negative Group

• Ahn JS
• Cho J
• Kwon SY
• Kang SH

• KMID: 1464940
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4174/jkss.2009.77.1.37

Abstract

PURPOSE: Triple negative breast cancer (estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative, and HER2/neu negative) is associated with high risk of recurrence and poor prognosis. We investigated the characteristics and prognosis of triple negative early-stage breast cancer.
METHODS
We reviewed the records of 821 early-stage breast cancer patients treated at our hospital from 1995 to 2005. We studied the differences between a triple negative group compared with a non-triple negative group.
RESULTS
Of 821 early-stage breast cancer patients, 200 (24.4%) were classified as triple negative. Large tumors (>2 cm) in the triple negative group were significantly more than those in the non-triple negative group (P=0.042). Histologic and nuclear grade of the triple negative group were significantly higher than those of the non-triple negative group (P<0.001). The median follow-up time is 50 months (1~135). There have been 50 local recurrences, 98 distant metastases, and 65 deaths. There were high rates of local recurrence in the triple negative group but no difference in 5-year disease free survival rates (P=0.178). The 5-year overall survival rate showed 85% in the triple negative group but 92.8% in the non-triple negative group (P=0.008). The relative risk for overall survival was 1.93 times higher in the triple negative group.
CONCLUSION
Triple negative breast cancer patients in early stages have poor pathologic findings and prognoses. Careful treatment and follow-up are important and further investigation is necessary for triple negative breast cancer.

Keyword

Triple negative breast cancer; Clinicopathologic factor; Prognosis

MeSH Terms

Breast
Breast Neoplasms
Disease-Free Survival
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Neoplasm Metastasis
Progesterone
Prognosis
Recurrence
Survival Rate
Progesterone

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Overall survivals of all patients (A), stage I (B), stage II (C) between triple negative and non-triple negative group.

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