Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Dec;136(3):795-804.
doi: 10.1007/s10549-012-2315-y. Epub 2012 Nov 4.

Clinical and biologic features of triple-negative breast cancers in a large cohort of patients with long-term follow-up

L Malorni  1 , P B Shetty, C De Angelis, S Hilsenbeck, M F Rimawi, R Elledge, C K Osborne, S De Placido, G Arpino
Affiliations

Clinical and biologic features of triple-negative breast cancers in a large cohort of patients with long-term follow-up

L Malorni et al. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012 Dec.

Abstract

Studies on well characterized, large populations of estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PgR)/HER2-negative [triple-negative (TN)] breast cancer (BC) patients with long-term follow-up are lacking. In this study, we analyze clinical outcomes of TN BC and implications of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression. Clinical and biologic features, time to first recurrence (TTFR), and overall survival (OS) were compared in 253 TN versus 1,036 ER positive, PgR positive, HER2-negative [estrogen-driven (ED)] BC. Compared to ED, TN tumors were larger (p = 0.02), more proliferative (high S-phase 54 vs. 17 %, p < 0.0001), more aneuploid (64 vs. 43 %, p < 0.0001) and more likely EGFR positive (≥10 fmol/mg by radioligand-binding assay, 49 vs. 7 %, p < 0.0001). Among TN, EGFR-positive BC were larger (p = 0.0018), more proliferative (p < 0.0001), and more aneuploid, (p < 0.0001) than EGFR-negative BC. Adjuvant-treated TN patients had shorter TTFR (p = 0.0003), and OS (p = 0.0017), than ED patients. However, in untreated patients, no differences in TTFR and OS were observed at 8 years median follow-up. Among TN patients, EGFR expression was not associated with worse outcome. TN tumors have a worse outcome in systemically treated patients but not in untreated patients. EGFR expression, does not predict for worse long-term survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overall survival by receptor group status in TN and ED subjects
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Time to first recurrence by receptor group status in TN and ED subjects
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Overall survival by receptor group status in TN and ED-treated subjects (adjuvant chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, or both)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Time to first recurrence (TTFR) by receptor group status in TN and ED-treated subjects (adjuvant chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, or both)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Overall survival by receptor group status in TN and ED untreated subjects
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Time to first recurrence by receptor group status in TN and ED untreated subjects
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Perou CM, Sorlie T, Eisen MB, et al. Molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature. 2000;406:747–752. - PubMed
    1. Sotiriou C, Neo SY, McShane LM, et al. Breast cancer classification and prognosis based on gene expression profiles from a population-based study. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2003;100:10393–10398. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sorlie T, Perou CM, Tibshirani R, et al. Gene expression patterns of breast carcinomas distinguish tumor subclasses with clinical implications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2001;98:10869–10874. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sorlie T, Tibshirani R, Parker J, et al. Repeated observation of breast tumor subtypes in independent gene expression data sets. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2003;100:8418–8423. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hartog H, Horlings HM, van der Vegt B, et al. Divergent effects of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor expression on prognosis of estrogen receptor positive versus triple negative invasive ductal breast carcinoma. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011;129:725–736. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms