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Updated: May 1, 2026
Studying Triple Negative Breast Cancer Using Orthotopic Breast Cancer Model
Published on: March 20, 2020
Mammographic and clinicopathological features of triple-negative breast cancer
11 Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
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.
