Triple-negative breast cancer: clinical features and patterns of recurrence
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE: To compare the clinical features, natural history, and outcomes for women with "triple-negative" breast cancer with women with other types of breast cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We studied a cohort of 1,601 patients with breast cancer, diagnosed between January 1987 and December 1997 at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. Triple-negative breast cancers were defined as those that were estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative, and HER2neu negative. The prognostic significance of triple-negative breast cancer was explored. RESULTS: The median follow-up time of the 1,601 women was 8.1 years. One hundred and eighty of 1,601 patients (11.2%) had triple-negative breast cancer. Compared with other women with breast cancer, those with triple-negative breast cancer had an increased likelihood of distant recurrence (hazard ratio, 2.6; 95% confidence interval, 2.0-3.5; P < 0.0001) and death (hazard ratio, 3.2; 95% confidence interval, 2.3-4.5; P < 0.001) within 5 years of diagnosis but not thereafter. The pattern of recurrence was also qualitatively different; among the triple-negative group, the risk of distant recurrence peaked at approximately 3 years and declined rapidly thereafter. Among the "other" group, the recurrence risk seemed to be constant over the period of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Triple-negative breast cancers have a more aggressive clinical course than other forms of breast cancer, but the adverse effect is transient.
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Development of effective therapies for triple-negative breast cancer is challenging because the disease is aggressive and lacks targetable hormone receptors.
“The development of efficacious therapies for TNBC has been challenging due to its aggressive nature and lack of hormone receptors that can be therapeutically targeted (1, 2).”
From Potentiation of carboplatin-mediated DNA damage by the Mdm2 modulator Nutlin-3a in a humanized orthotopic breast-to-lung metastatic model (2015) · cites this paper as [2]
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- Authors
- Dent, R., Trudeau, M., Pritchard, K. I., Hanna, W. M., Kahn, H. K., Sawka, C. A., Lickley, L. A., Rawlinson, E., Sun, P., & Narod, S. A.
- Affiliations
- Sunnybrook Health Science Centre (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Venue
- Clinical Cancer Research
- Published
- 2007-08-01
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- 4429-4434
- ISSN
- 1078-0432 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-3265
- OpenAlex
- W2170602872
- Cited by
- 5,091
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 244 · 2025: 316 · 2024: 350 · 2023: 417 · 2022: 424 · 2021: 451 · 2020: 391 · 2019: 350 · 2018: 300 · 2017: 275 · 2016: 259 · 2015: 268 · 2014: 245 · 2013: 181 · 2012: 171
- FWCI
- 31.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Clinical Cancer Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Breast Cancer Treatment Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Breast Lesions and Carcinomas
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Risks and Factors
- Keywords
- triple-negative breast cancer, breast cancer, distant recurrence, mortality, estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative, HER2-negative, prognostic value, natural history (disease), recurrence patterns
- MeSH terms
- Breast Neoplasms, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Recurrence, Local, Prognosis, Receptors, Estrogen, Receptors, Progesterone, Biomarkers, Tumor, Cohort Studies, Databases, Factual, Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast, Risk Assessment, Receptor, ErbB-2, Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
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