Clinicopathologic and prognostic characteristics of triple-negative breast cancer.
BACKGROUND
Triple-negative breast cancer (estrogen receptor (ER)-, progesterone receptor (PR)-, and HER2-negative) is a rare subtype with a poor prognosis. However, the clinicopathologic and prognostic characteristics of triple-negative breast cancer remain undetermined.


METHODS
Immunohistochemical staining was adopted to examine the expressions of ER, PR, p53, C-erbB-2 (HER2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein in 116 samples of paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissues.


RESULTS
22 triple-negative breast cancers were found among 116 informative cases (19%). The triple-negative phenotype significantly correlates with tumor size, histological grade, lymph node status, p53, and EGFR (p < 0.05), and not significantly with age, menopausal status, and VEGF protein. After a median follow-up period of 96 months (range: 32-123 months), 12 triple-negative breast cancer patients and 20 patients with non-triple-negative phenotype had distant relapse (p < 0.05). Survival analysis showed that triple-negative phenotype was inversely associated with overall survival (p < 0.05) but not significantly with disease-free survival (p = 0.2877). Multivariate Cox model analysis showed that tumor size, lymph node status, histological grade, and triple-negative phenotype provided independent significant predictive power.


CONCLUSIONS
Triple-negative breast cancer phenotype has specific clinical and biological characteristics. Patients with triple-negative breast cancer have a poorer prognosis. So far, there is no conclusive effective treatment, which necessitates further studies.
Tian
Xing-Song
XS
Department of Breast Cancer, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Shandong, China
Cong
Ming-Hua
MH
Zhou
Wen-Hong
WH
Zhu
Jian
J
Chen
Yue-Zhi
YZ
Liu
Qi
Q
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors
D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone