Mammographic and clinicopathological features of triple-negative breast cancer

Objective: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks effective treatment and has a poor prognosis. This study assessed mammographic findings and clinicopathological features of TNBC by comparing with non-TNBC in order to improve clinical diagnosis of TNBC. Methods: A total of 426 patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer were retrospectively assigned into two groups, TNBC (n = 54) and non-TNBC (n = 372), and then analysed. Results: TNBC frequently showed a high histological grade, presented with a mass (79.6%) and was less frequently associated with focal asymmetric density (11.1%), microcalcifications (5.6%) and distortion (3.7%) on mammography. TNBC mammographic masses were most frequently round/oval (58.1%) or lobular (30.2%) in shape and were less frequently irregular in shape (11.6%). Masses with circumscribed margins were the most frequent (37.2%), with microlobulated (25.6%) and obscured (16.3%) margins being commonly observed, but masses with spiculated margins were rare (9.3%). Conclusion: TNBC could have distinct mammographic and clinicopathological features compared with non-TNBC, and thus mammography may be useful in the diagnosis of TNBC. Advances in knowledge: This study demonstrated distinct mammographic and clinicopathological features to help in diagnosis of Chinese patients with TNBC.