title: Survival of Triple Negative versus Triple Positive Breast Cancers: Comparison and Contrast.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Triple negative (TN) and triple positive (TP) breast cancers both are aggressive types but TN generally has a shorter survival.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes for patients with TN versus TP breast cancer and to assess various prognostic factors affecting overall survival.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective audit of 85 breast cancer patients was conducted in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Medical Oncology on patients from 2006 to 2013 for whom IHC for ER, PgR and Her-2 neu were available. The patients were strati ed into: ER-, PR- and Her-2 neu- (Arm A, n=47) and ER+, PgR+ and Her-2 neu+ (Arm B, n=38).
  
  
  RESULTS
  TN subtype had higher numbers of premenopausal and advanced stage patients as compared to TP subtype. The locoregional recurrence (LRR) and distant metastatic rate was also higher in TN subtype but there was no de nite pattern in both the arms. Among the prognostic factors, patients with premenopausal status and advanced stage in TN breast cancer had inferior survival (P=0.07) whereas for those with postmenopausal status and early stage there was no survival difference between the two arms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TN subtype tends to be more aggressive in terms of younger age and advanced stage at presentation, higher tumour grade, LRR and metastasis, suggesting need for future research efforts on providing aggressive treatment to these patients. We could attribute better outcome for TP subtype to receptor positivity enabling role of hormonal treatment and targeted therapy, although less number of patients received targeted therapy.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Oncology, Christian Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana , Ludhiana, India E-mail : drpreetinegi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Preety
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Negi
authors.forename: Pamela Alice
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Kingsley
authors.forename: Kunal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: Jaineet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sachdeva
authors.forename: Himanshu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: Sudeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marcus
authors.forename: Aman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pannu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D017697:Premenopause / Q000378:metabolism; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone