This article is part of the supplement: VIII Madrid Breast Cancer Conference: Latest Advances in Breast Cancer
Clinical features and prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer
1 Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, and Institut Universitari Dexeus, Barcelona, Spain
2 Department Histology, Institut Universitari Dexeus, Barcelona, Spain
Breast Cancer Research 2009, 11(Suppl 1):P26 doi:10.1186/bcr2309
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/11/S1/P26
| Published: | 23 June 2009 |
© 2009 BioMed Central Ltd.
Objective
To compare the clinical features and prognosis of triple-negative breast cancers.
Methods
Analysis of all breast cancers studied by the Breast Diseases Committee during the period 2000 to 2005, comparing the clinical features and prognosis of triple-negative with the rest of breast cancers. The overall survival, local recurrence and contralateral breast cancer were analyzed with Kaplan–Meier curves.
Results
We studied 345 breast cancers, 22 (6.4%) triple negative and 323 (93.6%) nontriple negative. In the triple negative, the tumour size was pT0 0 (0%), pT1a 1 (7.1%), pT1b 1 (7.1%), pT1c 8 (57.1%), pT2 3 (21.4%), pT4b 1 (7.1%); and the axillary lymph node was pN0 9 (64.3%), pN1 5 (35.7%), with no statistically significant differences for the nontriple negative. The histological grade was grade III in 52.9% of the cases of triple-negative breast cancer and in 13.8% of the cases of nontriple-negative breast cancer; these differences were statistically significant. The overall survival was statistically worse, the local recurrences and contralateral breast cancer were higher in triple negative.
Conclusion
Triple-negative breast cancer has a high histological grade, more metastases, more local recurrences and contralateral breast cancer, and worse overall survival.