Background: Triple-negative breast carcinoma is defined by a primary tumor that is estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative, and HER2 negative. The current study was performed to determine the relationship of triple-negative tumor status to outcome after breast conservation treatment with radiation.
Patients and methods: A total of 519 women with early-stage invasive breast carcinoma underwent breast conservation treatment with radiation. Of the 519 primary breast carcinomas, 90 (17%) were triple negative and 429 (83%) were not triple negative. The median follow-up after treatment was 3.9 years.
Results: Compared with the patients without a triple-negative tumor, the patients with a triple-negative tumor had a higher 8-year rate of any local failure (8% vs. 4%, respectively; P = .041) and a lower 8-year rate of freedom from distant metastases (81% vs. 92%, respectively; P = .0066). There were no differences between the 2 groups for local-only first failure, overall survival, or contralateral breast cancer (all P >or= .3). On multivariate analysis, triple-negative tumors had an increased risk for any local failure (hazard ratio, 2.58), although this difference was not statistically significant (P = .097).
Conclusion: After breast conservation treatment with radiation, women with a triple-negative tumor had a higher rate of local failure compared with women without a triple-negative tumor. However, the absolute difference in local failure between the 2 groups was relatively small and therefore does not preclude breast conservation treatment with radiation for triple-negative early-stage invasive breast carcinoma.