OBJECTIVEThis study was conducted to analyze the clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival factors in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

METHODSA retrospective analysis was performed on 14 506 breast cancer patients admitted to the Departmrnt of Breast Surgery, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital from January 2004 to June 2010. The correlation of pathological characteristics, recurrence time and patterns, and prognosis with TNBC was analyzed.

RESULTSAmong the 14 506 cases, there were 1886 (13.0%) cases of triple-negative breast cancer, 7282 (50.2%) cases of luminal A breast caner, 3380 (23.3%) cases of luminal B breast caner, and 1958 (13.5%) cases of HER-2 overexpressing breast cancer. Compared with the other groups, the triple-negative breast cancer patients had significantly higher histological grade, lower percentage of invasive breast ductal carcinoma and higher pathological stage (P < 0.001) . The 5-year disease-free survival rate of the triple negative breast cancer was 79.5%, significantly lower than that of the other subtype breast cancer (P < 0.001), but the difference in 5-year overall survival rate was not significant (P = 0.113). The independent factors of DFS in TNBC including: age, tumor size, clinical stage, surgery and chemotherapy (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCompared with the other subtype breast cancers, the patients with triple-negative breast cancer have higher histological grade, lower percentage of invasive breast ductal carcinoma and higher pathological stage, and they also have a poor prognosis.