From http://www.hormonenegative.blogspot.com/
Most of the time when we look at statistics, they are already dated and represent survival rates that are several years old. In the time since the study, new treatments are found and survival rates usually continue to improve. So, new studies, updating survival stats are always relevant. Here is some good news from 2 recent studies of triple negative breast cancer:
Two recent studies in China add definition to the characteristics of triple negative breast cancer in an Asian population:
In research published in Clinical Oncology August 25, 2009 on 770 breast cancer patients at Shenzhen People’s Hospital, 17.1 percent, or 130 cases, were triple negative. The characteristics of TNBC patients:
• 68.9 percent, or 91 patients, were premenopausal
• 53.8 percent, or 71 patients, had tumors larger than 2cm
• 39.4 percent, or 52 patients, had lymph node metastasis
• The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 73.8 percent and the 5-year overall survival rate was 85.7 percent.
And in a study published online in advance of publication in Modern Pathology October 23, 2009 on 7048 breast cancer patients at the Department of Pathology, Singapore General Hospital, 11 percent were triple negative. Eighty-four percent of these were basal-like.
The major take-away is that 73.8 percent of the triple negative breast cancer cases survived five years disease-free. Overall, 85.7 percent survived. This is great news to those newly diagnosed women who are terrified. The great majority of TNBC women survive.
Mimi
