Clinical and pathological characteristics of triple-negative breast cancer patients: A single-center experience.

Abstract

e11515 Background: Triple negative breast cancer in which estrogen, progesterone receptors and c-erbB2 overexpression are negative, seems to have different clinical course and recurrence pattern. Methods: We evaluated retrospectively clinical demographic and pathological characteristics of triple negative breast cancers and investigated the association of these characteristics with OS and PFS. Results: 59 early stage patients with triple negative breast cancer patients followed in Baskent University Hospital between 1997-2009 were enrolled into the study. The median age of patients was 49. Median follow-up duration was 27 months (0.27-132 months). Two patients died during the follow-up. Invasive ductal carcinoma pathology was reported in 38 patients, invasive lobular in 3 patients, medullary in 5 patients.Almost half of the patients had LVI. 79% of patients had a T2 disease. 30% of patients’ tumor histological grade was III. Cancer history in the family was present in 95% of patients. Almost half of the patients had stage II disease. Adjuvant chemotherapy was given to 43 patients. Relapses were observed in 15 patients.The most common metastatic site was lung. Patients having high grade tumor, >3 (+) lymph nodes, younger age have higher chance of relapse during follow-up. Conclusions: In accordance with the literature, our triple negative breast cancer patients showed more aggressive characteristics. Although median follow-up is short, one-fourth of the patients having recurrence support natue of the triple negative breast cancer patients. In our study, triple negative patients had younger age at diagnosis, high grade tumors and more tendency to metastasize to visceral organs.