Clinical characteristics of triple-negative breast cancer.

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e11565 Background: Breast cancer represent a heterogenous group of tumors that are diverse in behavior, outcome, and response to therapy. To reduce mortality from breast cancer, there is a desire to examine and characterize tumors of poor prognosis, to predict their biology, to ensure adequate therapy. In this study, we investigate the clinical characteristics of triple negative breast cancer (ER, PR, c-erb B2 negative, immunohistochemically: TN tumors) that lacks the benefit of targeted therapy. Methods: From January 1995 to December 2002, 1,325 invasive breast cancer patients were operated. We investigated them retrospectively, who had the median follow-up for 62 months. We examined the differences between triple negative breast cancer compared with Non-triple negative breast cancers in relation to the clinicopathologic parameters, overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (Chi-square, logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier) Results: 213 (16.1%) cases among 1,325 patients were triple negative breast cancers. There were positive associations with younger age (below 35 years), poorly differentiated nuclear grade, negative axillary lymph nodes in TN tumors. Tumor size, histologic classifications, lymphovascular invasion were not significantly different between TN tumors and the other group. 199 patients (93.4%) were treated with chemotherapy. 26 cases (12.2%) of TN tumor experienced locoregional or systemic metastases, and 20 cases (9.4%) died. There was no significant difference of 5 year OS and DFS between TN tumors and the other group. Conclusions: Triple negative breast cancers are associated with poorly differentiated nuclear grade and affect younger than Non-triple negative tumors. For the targerted therapy against triple negative tumor, we need to study the specific marker of these.