The clinical significance of triple-negative phenotype on prognosis of young age(≤35) breast cancer patients

Abstract

Young age and triple-negative phenotype have been well-known as a poor prognostic factor in breast cancer. On the basis of hypothesis that differing distributions of molecular subtypes in young women may be a contributor to their poor prognosis, we designed this study to identify clinical significance of triple-negative phenotype in young age breast cancer patients. Between January 1985 and December 2007, 277 patients who had final results of status of hormone receptors and HER2(human epidermal growth factor receptor 2)/neu expression were selected as study cohort. Selected patients were divided into four groups.: Group I, ER(estrogen receptor) or PR(progesterone receptor)-positive and HER2/neu-negative group; Group II, ER or PR-negative and HER2/neu-positive group; Group III, ER, PR and HER2/neu-positive group; Group IV, ER, PR and HER2/neu-negative group. We compared clinicopathological features and analyzed disease-free survival(DFS), locoregional relapse-free survival(LRRFS), distant relapse-free survival(DRFS), and overall survival(OS). In patients characteristics, there was no significant difference among four groups. The median follow-up of all patients was 70.6 months. Survival analysis was performed by comparing group IV with other three groups. There was no significant difference in five-year DFS(p=0.544), LRRFS(p=0.464), DRFS(p=0.872) and OS(p=0.452) between group IV and control group(group I+II+III). In this study, in young age breast cancer patients, triple-negative phenotype did not show worse prognosis compared with other phenotypes.