Clinicopathological characters of triple negative breast cancer

To study the clinicopathological characters of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). A total of 629 patients with breast cancer were reviewed, who were treated from 2003 to 2007 in Chongqing Cancer Institute. The comparison of clinicopathological features including TNM classification, histological type, tumor location, axillary lymphonodes status and neoadjuvant chemotherapy between TNBC and nontriple negative breast cancer (NTNBC) was performed. The overall response was evaluated by whether the patients achieve complete remission (CR) and partial remission (PR) after chemotherapy. There were 69 TNBCs in the 629 patients with breast cancer. The premenopausal patients, which was found in 49/69 of TNBCs, was more than NTNBCs. The average diameter of tumor in TNBC group was 4.1 cm, lager than NTNBC group. TNBC with axillary nodes metastasis occurred in 21 cases, and the axillary nodes metastasis rate was lower than NTNBC. The positive expression rate of p53 in TNBC was 44.9%, and the overall response (CR+PR) was 72.2%. No statistical differences were found regarding the positive expression rate of p53 and the overall response between TNBC and NTNBC. TNBC were a group of primary breast cancers with triple negative, tending to occur in premenopausal women, with larger tumors, lower axillary nodes metastasis rate. TNBC had worse clinical prognosis and currently lacked effective targeted therapies.