Triple-negative breast cancer: correlation between imaging and pathological findings

Triple-negative breast cancer: correlation between imaging and pathological findings
Eun Sook Ko, Byung Hee Lee, Hyun-A Kim, Woo-Chul Noh, Min Suk Kim & Sang-Ah Lee
European Radiology 2010; 20;5:1111-1117

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Results: 
Triple-negative breast cancers showed a high histological grade. On mammography, triple-negative breast cancers usually presented with a mass (43/87, 49%) or with focal asymmetry (19/87, 22%), and were less associated with calcifications. On ultrasound, the cancers were less frequently seen as non-mass lesions (12/87, 14%), more likely to have circumscribed margins (43/75, 57%), were markedly hypoechoic (36/75, 57%) and less likely to show posterior shadowing (4/75, 5%). Among the three types of breast cancers, ER-negative/PR-negative/HER2-positive breast cancers most commonly had associated calcifications (52/65, 79%) on mammography and were depicted as non-mass lesions (21/65, 32%) on ultrasound

Conclusion: 
Our results suggest that the imaging findings might be useful in diagnosing triple-negative breast cancer