Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive heterogeneous cancer and carries poor prognosis. The study was conducted to analyze the recurrence pattern and survival outcome in TNBC patients.
METHODS
A retrospective analysis was performed for 171 consecutive non-metastatic TNBC patients. Chi-square
test, Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox-regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. P<0.05 was
considered significant.
RESULTS
Patients were diagnosed commonly at younger age (64.8% patients were ?50 years, with median age
of 48 years), and node-positive (60.2%) disease. At a median follow-up of 40 months, recurrence was
observed in 35.7% of patients. The cumulative recurrence rate at 1 year, 2 years, 3 years were 9.4%,
26.3%, and 33.9% respectively. Distant metastasis (73.8%) and multiple lesions (86.9%) were the most
common pattern of recurrence. Common sites of recurrences in decreasing order were lung > nodes
(regional+non regional) > brain > bone > liver > contralateral breast. The disease-free survival (DFS)
and overall survival (OS) were 64.3% and 78.4%, respectively. High-grade tumor, nodal metastasis, <10
number of lymph node dissection (LND) were independently associated with poor DFS, whereas the
presence of nodal metastasis was the single factor associated with poor OS.
CONCLUSION
TNBC is common in younger age and node-positive disease. Recurrence occurs commonly at distant
sites as multiple lesions in the first 3 years of diagnosis. High-grade tumor, <10 LND, and nodal metastasis
are associated with poor DFS, whereas nodal involvement is associated with poor OS.