Prognostic Analysis of Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Based on HER-2 and AR Expression Status

QI Luxia; ZHANG Guifang; YANG Xiaodong; ZHOU Linjing; HE Qiuli; LI Bin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-437X.2025.22.006

Abstract：Objective To explore the clinical characteristics and prognostic differences of early triple-negative breast cancer with different human epidermal growth factor receptor-2(HER-2)expression status,to perform subgroup analysis of early triple-negative breast cancer prognosis according to androgen receptor(AR)and/or HER-2 expression status,and to explore the prognostic factors of early triple-negative breast cancer.Methods The clinical data of 277 patients with early triple-negative breast cancer admitted to Xinxiang Central Hospital from January 1,2015 to December 31,2019 were retrospectively collected,and the differences in clinical characteristics between patients with different HER-2 expression status were analysed using the x2 test,and patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer were grouped according to the expression status of HER-2 and/or AR and the KMunicate curve was drawn to compare the prognostic differences between different subgroups of patients,and logistic regression model was used to explore the factors affecting the prognosis of early-stage triple-negative breast cancer.Results The differences in age,tumour location,postoperative T stage,clinical stage,Ki-67 index,AR status and p53 status between the subgroups with different HER-2 expression status were not statistically significant(P＞0.05),and the difference between the postoperative lymph node stages of the two groups was statistically significant(x2=10.740,P=0.001).Survival analysis showed that the difference in disease-free survival(DFS)between the HER-2 negative and HER-2 low expression groups was not statistically significant(x2=0.093,P=0.148).Compared to the AR-negative group,patients in the AR-positive group had an increased 3-year disease-free rate,and the difference was statistically significant(x2=9.256,P=0.002).Compared with the AR-negative HER-2 low expression group,the other three groups of early TNBC patients had longer DFS,and the differences were statistically significant(all P＜0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that AR positivity was an independent factor for the good prognosis of early triple-negative breast cancer(P=0.004).Conclusion The lymph node metastasis rate was higher in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer with low HER-2 expression,and the survival status of the patients was not related to the HER-2 expression status,whereas the AR expression status could provide additional survival information for patients with early triple-negative breast cancer,and AR positivity was an independent influencing factor for the good prognosis of early triple-negative breast cancer.