Clinicopathological Feature and Recurrence Pattern of Triple Negative Breast Cancer

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC; estrogene receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative, and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative) are very aggressive tumors with high risk of recurrence and poor prognosis. We have compared the clinical characteristics, recurrence rate and pattern between TNBC and nonTNBC. METHODS: A study was done among 879 patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer and received surgery from January 1999 to December, 2005 at Kyungpook National University Hospital. Medical records and pathological reports were reviewed. TNBC was defined as ER(-), PR(-), HER2(-). NonTNBC was defined as having any one of them positive. RESULTS: Of the 879 patients, 81 (9.2%) cases were TNBC. As compared with nonTNBC, TNBC had no significant difference in age of diagnosis (P=0.478), tumor size (P=0.961), axillary lymph node metastasis (P=0.398), stage (P=0.341), histological type (P=0.550), operation method (P=0.053) and chemotherapy (P=0.971). In histological classification TNBC had significantly a high histologic grade, compared to nonTNBC (P<0.001). The median follow-up period was 53 months. There have been 56 local recurrences, 70 distant metastases, 10 distant metastasis with local recurrence and 66 deaths. There was no significant difference in recurrence rate and mortality rate between the two groups. But, average time to recurrence was significantly shorter in TNBC than nonTNBC. CONCLUSION: TNBC had shorter time interval to recurrence compared to nonTNBC and had higher histological grade (mostly grade 3). Therefore, in TNBC, careful treatment and follow-up are important. Further long-term investigations with larger groups of patients will be necessary.