Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Care (Jun 2020)

Epidemiology, Pattern of Recurrence and Survival in Triple-negative Breast Cancer

  • Dharmendra Singh,
  • Niladri Roy,
  • Sumana Maiti Das

DOI
https://doi.org/10.31557/apjcc.2020.5.2.87-94
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 2
pp. 87 – 94

Abstract

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Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the world. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) characterized by the absence of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and Her2neu receptor. This study investigated the epidemiological characteristics and survival in non-metastatic TNBC. Materials and methods: Data from medical records of patients with breast cancer between 20014 and 2018 were retrieved, and patients with TNBC were identified and analyzed for demographic and clinicopathological features. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan–Meier method for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: A total of 457 nonmetastatic breast cancer patients were registered at our institute from January 2014 to August 2018, of which 137 were triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This accounted for 29.9% of nonmetastatic breast cancer during this period. With the median age of 45 years at diagnosis, the most common presenting complaint was breast lump. The median duration of symptoms was 30 months. The most commonly affected age group was 41-50 years. The majority of the patients were in a locally advanced stage (69.3%) while 30.7% were in the early stage. 29.2% recurrence at 38 months of median follow up. Recurrence was statistically significantly correlating with age ≤ 35 (p= < 0.001), pathological stage (p= < 0.001), nodal status at diagnosis (p= < 0.001), perineural invasion (PNI) (p= < 0.001), number of positive lymph nodes (p= < 0.001). The mean DFS and OS were 43.6 and 46 months respectively. 3-year DFS and OS were 65.5% and 66.2 % respectively. Conclusion: TNBCs are high-grade tumors mostly presented in locally advanced stages and most of the patients are young. TNBCs are clinically aggressive with high risk of metastasis to visceral organs. The survival of TNBCs in the Indian scenario is poor in comparison to Western populations, probably due to racial factors, socioeconomic factors and health care access facility.

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