Triple-negative Breast Cancer: Pathological And MR Findings

Purpose:To evaluate the clinical characteristics, pathological and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging findings of "triple-negative bresst cancer"(ie, cancer that is estrogen receptor [ER] negative, progesterone receptor [PR] negative, and human epidermal growth factor recetptor-2[HER2] negative) and to compare them with those of nontriple negative breast cancer.Material and methods:The clinical characteristics,pathogical and MR imaging findings of 218 women with histopathologically cinfirmed Breast cancers were review.The clinical data and pathological materials incuded age, lymph node status, and histological pattern. MR imaging findings included tumor size, shape,margin, intratumoral signal intensity,internal enhancement, time-signal intensity curve(TIC) pattern, early-phase enhancement rate (EER), maximum enhancement rate (SImax), as well as the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC).Compare the features of the triple negative breast cancer with nontriple negative breast cancer.Results:Compared with nontriple negative breast cancer,27 triple negative breast cancers lesions showed unifocal lesion, mass lesion type (P=0.017),12 lesions showed smooth margin (P=0.003),22 lesions showed rim enhancement (P=0.012), and 7 lesions showed very high intratumoral signal intensity (P=0.002). No statistical differences between TNBC and non-TNBC were showed on the age, lymph node status,shape, size, TIC, EER, SImax, and ADC (P>0.05). Conclusion:Several MR imaging features, such as unifocal lesion, mass lesion type, smooth margin,rim enhancement might be used for detecting triple-negative breast cancer.