An institutional analysis of clinicopathological features of triple negative breast cancer.

AIM

Most common breast cancer in India among female is breast cancer. This is heterogeneous disease, one of the subtypes, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) defined as no expression of estrogen, progesterone receptor and neither expression nor amplification of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2/neu. TNBC is more frequent and aggressive in younger age group. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinicopathological features and outcome in TNBC versus non-TNBC group of patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Medical record of 373 patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from January 2011 to December 2014 was retrieved. The last follow-up was done in December 2015. Patients were evaluated and grouped on the basis of receptor status (TNBC vs. non-TNBC). Baseline categorical variables were analyzed using the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. Noncategorical variables were analyzed using t-test.

RESULTS

Out of 373 cases, 149 (39.94%) were diagnosed as TNBC. Patients with TNBC had a significantly lower median age (45 vs. 48 years). Data analysis revealed significant difference in number of metastasis in TNBC as compared to non-TNBC group (45.6% vs. 25.6%, P = 0.001). In the present study, mean disease-free survival was 14.73 versus 17.03 months (P = 0.22, not significant) and mean overall survival was 24.71 versus 27.38 months (P = 05, significant) in TNBC versus non-TNBC group, respectively.

CONCLUSION

TNBC represented 39.94% which is higher than the range normally reported in literature. TNBC is associated with younger age, high-grade tumors, and a higher rate of distant metastasis.