Triple negative breast cancer in Bulgaria: epidemiological data and treatment patterns based on real world evidence and patient registries

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common oncologic disease among women worldwide. Survival rates vary significantly and depend on early diagnosis practice and access to treatment. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 12-15% of all breast cancers. We performed a one-year real-life retrospective study on the patho-histological status and treatment of a representative cohort of patients with TNBC in Bulgaria. We collected anonymised data for TNBC patients from the electronic artificial intelligence platform Sqilline -Danny Platform. Demographic characteristics, data on biomarkers, TNM (Tumor, Nodule, Metastasis) stage, therapeutic regime, line and changes in treatment were chronologically analysed for all patients. The results were processed through descriptive statistics. For the observed period, Jan 2019-Dec 2019, 6880 breast cancer patients from eight major oncology hospitals were included in the database. The average age of the women was 60 y; 234 (3.4%) of them were diagnosed with TNBC; 10% had unknown TNM stage. The majority of the patients were assigned to chemotherapy (84%) of which 35% were on adjuvant. Most changes in the therapy were observed in the neo-adjuvant group).The results from this study provide evidence that the treatment patterns of TNBC, and changes in therapy are in compliance with international guidelines. We identified less patients with TNBC than the frequencies reported in international epidemiological studies. This might be attributed to lack of funding of necessary tests or insufficient data in patients record. The study confirms that dynamic patient registers are important for performing a real-world studies of treatment patterns.