The prognostic importance of triple negative breast carcinoma

Abstract

There is a current debate on whether triple negative breast carcinomas (estrogen receptor--ER-negative, progesterone receptor--PR-negative and HER2-negative) have a poor prognosis. Our aim in this retrospective study was to determine whether triple negative feature is a prognostic factor for disease-free survival (DFS) in 322 breast carcinoma patients, of whom 80 (24.8%) had triple negative tumor histology. In the multivariate analysis, tumor subgroup (triple vs non-triple, p<0.0001; hazard ratio [HR], 4.2; 95% confidence interval [95%CI], 2.2-8.2) was a significant factor related to relapse, in addition to number of metastatic nodes (>4 vs <or=4, p=0.04; HR, 1.6; 95%CI, 1.2-2.4), lymphatic vascular invasion (yes vs no, p=0.002; HR, 2.0; 95%CI, 1.3-3.1) and HER2 (positive vs negative, p<0.0001; HR, 5.9; 95%CI, 3.0-10.0). This result indicated that patients with triple negative histology had a poor disease-free survival and this histology was an independent significant prognostic factor for DFS.

Outcomes of Triple-Negative Versus Non-Triple-Negative Breast Cancers Managed with Breast-Conserving Therapy

“…Also, LRRFS, DFS and OS were similar for both groups. It is believed that factors like young age and poor differentiation of triple negative cancers contribute to their aggressive nature (Mersin et al, 2008;Kwan et al, 2009;Dawood et al, 2010). These factors have been shown to be independent predictors of outcome in breast cancer patients (Adami et al, 1986;Chung et al, 1996;Sidoni et al, 2003;Sharif et al, 2010).…”

Clinicopathological Characteristics of Triple-negative Breast Cancers in the Northeast Region of Turkey

“…Triple-negative tumours account for 10.6-29.5% of all breast cancers (8)(9)(10)(11)(12). As proven by the results of previous studies, standard treatment protocols used for breast cancer management have not yielded the expected successful results in this subgroup to date.…”

Low prevalence of germline PALB2 mutations in Australian triple‐negative breast cancer

“…TNBCs represent an important subtype of breast cancer as they have a lower recurrence-free and overall survival compared to receptor-positive disease, regardless of disease stage at time of diagnosis. 1,2 A large proportion of tumours arising in BRCA1 germline mutation carriers display a triple-negative phenotype and gene expression profiles of BRCA1-associated breast cancers are similar to those of TNBCs. 3 It has been suggested that TNBCs may harbour mutations in genes involved in the BRCA-associated DNA repair pathway [3].…”

“…Multiple studies have shown that women with TNBC do not benefit from trastuzumab or endocrine therapy 1,41 and are associated with an adverse prognosis, with greater risk of recurrence even when treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. 42 Recent studies have shown that TNBC patients with germline BRCA mutations have a stronger response to treatment with DNA-damaging cytotoxic chemotherapies and poly(adenosine diphosphate)-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, which selectively target cells that are deficient in homologous recombination DNA damage repair.…”