Analysis of the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of triple-positive breast cancer and HER2-positive breast cancer—A retrospective study

Abstract

BackgroundAdjuvant chemotherapy and targeted therapy have become standard postoperative therapeutic modalities for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer(HER2-positive,HR-negative), including triple-positive breast cancer(HER2-positive,HR-positive). However, these two types of breast cancer differ in terms of pathogenesis. This article analyzes these two types of breast cancer by comparing their prognoses.MethodsThe clinicopathological characteristics of 135 patients, including 60 patients with triple-positive breast cancer and 75 patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, were analyzed to compare the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of the two groups over a 5-year period. A multifactorial Cox risk model was constructed by grouping age, menstrual status, maximum tumor diameter, number of lymph node metastases, pathological staging, and Ki-67 staining results. All statistical data were analyzed in detail using SPSS25.0 statistical software.ResultsThe 5-year OS rates of patients with breast cancer in the triple-positive and HER2-positive groups were 96.7% and 82.7%, respectively, and the 5-year DFS rates were 90% and 73.3%, respectively. The Cox results revealed that molecular staging was an independent factor affecting recurrent metastasis and survival of breast cancer patients (hazard ratio [HR] =2.199, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.296-8.266; HR = 9.994, 95% CI, 2.019-49.465).ConclusionThe 5-year DFS and OS rates were significantly better in the triple-positive group than in the HER2-positive group. Subgroups received different prognosis for different chemotherapy regimens. Breast cancer patients should be treated according to the risk of recurrence with symptomatic treatment and precise regulation.

Construction and validation of a nomogram for predicting the prognosis of patients with lymph node-positive invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast: based on SEER database and external validation cohort

“…In the analysis of prognostic factors, we also found that patients whose breast cancer was not the first primary malignancy tended to have a poorer prognosis, which is also true in other cancers (34)(35)(36). In general, higher number of positive lymph nodes and lymph node metastasis rate are associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer patients (37)(38)(39). For IMPC patients, a literature (15) shows through univariate analysis that IMPC patients with ≥4 positive lymph nodes have shorter OS compared to lymph node negative patients, while the OS of IMPC patients with 1-3 positive lymph nodes is similar to that of patients with lymph node negative diseases.…”

Efficacy of everolimus‐based therapy in advanced triple‐positive breast cancer: Experience from three cancer centers in China

“…4 Several studies have consistently shown that TPBC is highly invasive and exhibits increased proliferative activity. 5,6 TPBC patients generally present with higher tumor grades, larger tumor sizes, and an elevated risk of lymph node metastases. 5 There have been few studies on patients with TPBC, particularly for those at advanced stage disease.…”

“…TPBC has been classified as an independent biological subtype, with a poorer prognosis compared to HR‐positive (HR+)/HER2‐negative (HER2‐) subtype but a better prognosis than HR‐negative (HR‐)/HER2‐positive (HER2+) subtype 4 . Several studies have consistently shown that TPBC is highly invasive and exhibits increased proliferative activity 5,6 . TPBC patients generally present with higher tumor grades, larger tumor sizes, and an elevated risk of lymph node metastases 5 …”