Breast Cancer Subtypes and Survival in Chinese Women with Operable Primary Breast Cancer

Objective： To investigate the associations between the different breast cancer subtypes and survival in Chinese women with operable primary breast cancer. Methods： A total of 1538 Chinese women with operable primary breast cancer were analyzed in this study, the median follow-up was 77 months. Estrogen receptor （ER）, progesterone receptor （PR）, and HER2 status were available for these patients. Results： Luminal A （ER＋ and/or PR＋, HER2-） had a favorable disease-free survival （DFS） and overall survival （OS） compared with other subtypes in the entire cohort. Using the luminal A as a reference, among the patients with lymph node positive disease, HER2＋ （ER-, PR-, HER2＋） had the worst DFS （hazard ratio, HR=1.80, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.91, P=0.017） and luminal B （ER＋ and/or PR＋, HER2＋） had the worst OS （HR=2.27, 95% CI 1.50 to 3.45, P0.001）; among the patients with lymph node negative disease, triple-negative （ER-, PR-, HER2-） had the worst DFS （HR=2.21, 95% CI 1.43 to 3.41, P0.001）, whereas no significant difference in DFS between HER2＋ and luminal B or luminal A was observed. Conclusion： As compared with luminal A, luminal B and HER2＋ have the worst survival in patients with lymph node positive disease, but this is not the case in patients with lymph node negative disease; triple-negative subtype has a worse survival in both lymph node positive and lymph node negative patients.