title: Prognostic factors for triple-negative breast cancer patients receiving preoperative systemic chemotherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Triple-negative breast cancer patients are more likely to achieve a pathologic complete response after preoperative chemotherapy but they have still poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to identify prognostic factors in triple-negative breast cancer patients receiving preoperative chemotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Triple-negative breast cancer patients who underwent preoperative chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. Significant prognostic factors among clinical and pathologic variables were investigated with Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards modeling for disease-free survival and overall survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 135 triple-negative breast cancer patients, the median age was 54 years, median tumor diameter on palpation was 4.5 cm, and there were 62 clinically node positive patients. The clinical response rate was 76% (103 patients) and pathologic complete response rate was 21% (29 patients). Median disease-free survival was 44.4 months and median overall survival was 49.2 months. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that that completion of chemotherapy, better clinical response, fewer positive nodes, and lower histologic grades were significant factors associated with both disease-free and overall survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data demonstrated that clinical response of preoperative systemic chemotherapy is an important independent favorable prognostic factor for triple-negative breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Breast Surgery Division, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. soasaga@ncc.go.jp
authors.forename: Sota
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Asaga
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hojo
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kenjiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jimbo
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsuda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone