Characterization of 940 Chinese patients with triple-positive breast cancer by clinicopathological and treatment outcomes

Background: This study aims to evaluate the clinicopathological features, prognosis, and related prognosis factors of triple-positive breast cancer, to develop more scientific and individualized treatment plans. Methods We collected pathological and clinical data from 960 patients with early-stage triple-positive breast cancer who underwent surgical treatment at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital (2012–2017). The Cox regression model was used for prognostic univariate analysis and multifactor analysis. Kaplan-Meier was used to plot survival curves, and the log-rank test was used to analyze survival differences between groups. Results T-stage, N-stage, whether to receive adjuvant targeted therapy, and whether to receive adjuvant endocrine therapy were independent influencing factors of prognosis ( P  < 0.05). Subgroup analysis showed that sequential tamoxifen treatment alone in the targeted therapy group did not significantly improve the prognosis of patients ( P   0.05). The prognosis of T1abN0M0 patients was not significantly altered by the use of trastuzumab or not ( P  = 0.439). There was no significant difference in OS with or without trastuzumab in the HR ≥ 30% group ( P  = 0.212) and in DFS and OS in the HR ≥ 50% group ( P  = 0.082, P  = 0.978). Conclusions Our findings indicate that HR expression influences the biological behavior and treatment outcome of TPBC. We should choose individualized, targeted treatment programs, based on patients’ HR expression and pathological staging to benefit patients with TPBC.