What is the survival rate for triple negative breast cancer?
Triple negative breast cancer has the worst survival rate compared to the other breast cancer types. The reason for this is that at the time of initial diagnosis, larger tumor dimensions are often already present, as it describes a relatively aggressive growth. Therefore, at the time of diagnosis, the lymph nodes in the armpit are often already affected by tumor cells.
Since the lymph node status is an essential factor for the prognosis and survival rate, a worsened survival rate must be expected. However, the survival rate is significantly modulated by the individual response to chemotherapy. Patients who respond well to chemotherapy have a similar survival rate as patients with prognostically more favorable breast cancer types.
What are the chances of recovery if the lymph nodes are affected?
Lymph node involvement plays an important prognostic role in breast cancer. It depends on whether lymph nodes are affected and how many. The more lymph nodes already contain nests of tumor cells, the lower the chances of recovery statistically.
Lymph node involvement indicates that the cancer has already spread beyond its local borders. If 1-3 lymph nodes are affected and at the same time the tumor hormone receptor is negative or HER2 positive, it is called a high-risk tumor. If more than 4 lymph nodes are affected, it is a high-risk tumor regardless of the receptor status.
This also has significant effects on the therapy. If lymph nodes in the armpit are affected, they are completely removed during the surgical therapy and all of them are examined individually. In the subsequent chemo-, hormone or antibody therapy, a more aggressive therapy approach would also be chosen in the case of positive lymph nodes in order to give the patient the best chances of recovery. There are no concrete figures on the chances of a cure for lymph node involvement, as there are too many other factors involved to venture a generalization. The individual risk can only be estimated by the treating physician, and even he can only rely on statistics and his experience.
