Invasive triple negative breast cancer with basal and non-basal-like immunophenotypes: prognostic implications

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of the study was to compare the postoperative staging and clinical development outcomes in a period of three years with the histopathological and immunohistochemical characteristics considered prognostic and/or predictive factors in patients being treated for triple negative type of breast cancer in the Barão Lucena Hospital, Recife, Pernambuco. Method: The study was conducted with 125 female patients suffering from triple negative breast cancer who underwent surgical treatment in the mastology service of Barão Lucena Hospital from 2009 to 2012. The clinical and pathological features of the tumors were studied and correlated with basal and non-basal subtypes. A descriptive data analysis was carried out using tables and/or graphs for qualitative variables. Association analysis was performed using χ 2 test for independence. In tables that showed expected frequency lower than 5, in more than 20% of cells, we used the Fisher's exact test. In addition, the odds ratio (OR) and the confidence interval (CI) for OR were calculated. In the entire analysis, a 5% significance level was considered. Results: Mean age was 49 years; regarding race, black was present in 83 (66.4%). The most common histological type was ductal, in 111 (88.8%). The pathological stage I/II was the most common, in 87 (69.6%) patients. A total of 71 patients (56.8%) showed no axillary metastasis. Regarding the type of surgery, the conservative one was performed in 57 (45.6%), including sectorectomy and oncoplastic surgery. The recurrence was present in 30 patients, basal in 16 (53.3%) patients and 14 (46.7%) in the non-basal, and bone metastasis was the most frequent. Conclusion: In this triple-negative tumor sample, the most important facts related to survival were: being aged less than 40 years, histological type, cytokeratin CK5/6 and higher significance level of the factors EGFR and KI-67.