Evaluation of treatment outcomes of triple-negative breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Treatment responses are variable depending on tumor morphological characteristics, clinical characteristics, and hormonal receptor levels. In current medical practice, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PGR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) levels have been identified as important prognostic factors; they can change prognosis and treatment modalities. In this study, the prognostic factors of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) were examined retrospectively.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Some 110 cases with negative prognostic and predictive proteins (ER, PGR, and HER2) were included in this study. Median follow-up was 56 months. Recurrences, overall survival, and prognostic factors were evaluated.

RESULTS: We revealed in our triple-negative series that nodal status, tumor size, whole breast radiation doses, and type of surgery are the most useful prognostic markers.

CONCLUSION: Triple-negative breast cancers, especially basal-like subtypes, have bad prognoses. They have high histopathological grades and high risk of invasion. This group can make early metastases and expected survival is usually short. We need to focus on new treatment strategy modalities on this group, and pretreatment values of different prognostic markers are well-identified, such as androgen receptors, basal cytokeratin expression, and BRCA gene status.