Biological characteristics and long-term outcomes in node-negative breast cancer

Abstract Background Since the risk of relapse of node-negative breast cancer (BC) is varying, we evaluated the prognosis of patients with this disease and the factors associated with increased risk of relapse. Methods The clinical charts of BC patients with evidence of negative nodes and with a potential ≥5-year follow-up were retrospectively reviewed. Results We analyzed 1276 patients. Over a median follow-up of 71.6 months (range: 1–227.2 months), we observed 159 events of relapse or death. Median RFS was 170 months. Median OS was 192 months. At univariate analysis, older age, negative hormonal receptors, larger tumor size and higher proliferation index (Ki67) were associated with worse RFS and OS (p At multivariate analysis for RFS, age, Ki67 and tumor size confirmed their independent prognostic role. At multivariate analysis for OS, age and positive hormonal receptors showed an independent prognostic role. We observed no differences in prognosis between HER2-positive and TNBC, but TNBC showed a worse OS compared with luminal-like BC. Conclusions In node-negative BC, age, hormonal receptor status, tumor size and Ki67 were prognostic factors. TNBC subtype was not associated with poorer prognosis compared with the HER2-positive subtype, but showed a worse OS compared with luminal-like BC.