Clinicopathological and Prognostic Characteristics of Triple- Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) in Chinese Patients: A Retrospective Study

Aims: To determine the clinical, pathological and prognostic features associated with triple-negative breastcancer (TNBC).
Methods: Clinical and histologic data of 21,749 breast cancer patients who were treated atTianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital between July 2002 and December 2011 were collected.Patients were divided into two groups: those with TNBC and those with other types of breast cancer. Patientsand tumor characteristics were compared between the two groups using the Chi-square test. The prognosticresults of 9,823 patients in the study population were also analyzed to determine long-term survival rates in thetwo groups of breast cancer patients.
Results: Among the breast cancer patients treated in our hospital between2003 and 2011, 10.4%-13.5% of them had triple-negative breast cancers. Data analyses revealed significantdifferences in disease onset age, family history of breast cancer, tumor size, tumor histologic grade, lymph notepositivity and metastatic status between TNBC and non-TNBC patients. There were also significant differencesin 5-year, 7-year and 9-year disease-free and 7-year and 9-year overall survival probability between the groups.
Conclusions:TNBC are associated with younger disease onset age, larger tumor size, higher rate of axillarylymph node positivity, and higher tumor histologic grade. TNBC is also related to family history of breast cancer,increased metastatic risk and poor prognosis.