Yi et al. BMC Cancer 2010, 10:527 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/527 Page 3 of 7 and 37.8% for HR+, respectively; p = 0.001) and a higher proliferative index (Ki-67 >50%: 85.7% for TNBC, 0% for HER2+, and 31.3% for HR+, respectively; p = 0.013) than HER2+ or HR+ subtypes. Other clinical features, such as age, stage at diagnosis, and previous treatment did not differ significantly among the three subtypes. Adjuvant doxorubicin was administered to 7 patients (6 in HR+, 1 in HER2+). Hepatic metastases were more common in the HER2+ subgroup (52.4% for HR+, 84.6% for HER2+, 45.5% for TNBC; p = 0.046). Adju- vant endocrine treatment was performed for 43 HR+ patients (Table 1). Next to AC chemotherapy, median numbers of palliative chemotherapy regimens were 3 for HR+, 2 for HER2+, and 1 for TNBC (p = 0.006). Endo- crine treatment was treated for 17 HR+ patients (24%) as palliative aim (Table 1). Treatment responses Of the 110 patients, 105 (95%) with measurable lesions had a clinical response. Two of these 105 patients had a complete response (CR), and 56 patients achieved a par- tial response (PR; Table 2). Both patients with CR were HR+. The overall response rate (ORR) of 105 patients with measurable disease was 54.3%. The ORR of HER2+ patients was slightly lower than those of patients with HR+ or TN-subtypes, but this difference was not statis- tically significant (42.9%, 55.9%, and 56.5%, respectively; p = 0.542; Table 2). Survival analysis Progression-free survival (PFS) The median PFS to AC chemotherapy was 9.5 months (95% CI, 7.1-11.9 months). The median PFS of each Table 1 Clinicopathologic characteristics of patients according to subtypes HR+ (N = 71) HER2+ (N = 14) TN (N = 25) Clinical characteristics at initial diagnosis Median age Initial stage I II III IV unknown Familial History DFI after surgery (median) Tumor characteristics B-R.Gr. III (n = 69) P53 <5% (n = 93) Ki 67 >50% (n = 25) Previous (neoadjuvant or adjuvant) treatments Curative surgery. Neoadju-CTx Adjuvant CTx Adjuvant doxorubicin Adjuvant HormoTx Distant Metastases Lung Pleura Liver Brain Bone Skin Soft tissue Next treatment after AC chemotherapy Median number of CTx (range) Number of patients with HormoTx (%) Number of patients with trastuzumab Tx (%) 43.8 (30-69) 9 (12.7%) 23 (32.4%) 11 (15.5%) 25 (35.2%) 3 (4.2%) 16 (23.5%) 47.6 months 17 (37.8%) 32 (55.2%) 5 (31.3%) 45 (63.4%) 3 (4.2%) 35 (49.3%) 6 (17.1%) 43 (60.6%) 49 (74.2%) 41 (57.8%) 33 (52.4%) 11 (17.7%) 36 (50.7%) 14 (19.7%) 22 (31.0%) 3 (0-11) 17 (24%) 5 (7.0%) DFI, disease free interval; CTx, chemotherapy; HormoTx, hormonal therapy; Tx, treatment. AContinuous variables; One way ANOVA. BCategorical variables; Pearson’s chi-square test. 49.5 (33-65) 1 (7.1%) 4 (28.6%) 2 (14.3%) 6 (42.9%) 1 (7.1%) 4 (28.6%) 40.6 months 2 (25.0%) 7 (50.0%) 0 (0%) 8 (57.1%) 0 (0%) 7 (50.0%) 1 (14.3%) 0 11 (84.6%) 8 (57.4%) 11 (84.6%) 3 (23.1%) 8 (57.1%) 1 (7.1%) 1 (7.1%) 2 (0-8) 0 4 (28.6%) 47.0 (24-77) 2 (8.0%) 11 (44.0%) 2 (8.0%) 9 (36.0%) 1 (4.0%) 7 (29.2%) 38.7 months 14 (87.5%) 9 (42.9%) 6 (85.7%) 15 (60.0%) 1 (4.0%) 12 (48.0%) 0 (0%) 0 15 (62.5%) 10 (45.5%) 10 (45.5%) 6 (27.3%) 10 (40.0%) 9 (36%) 6 (24.0%) 1 (0-7) 0 0 .829B 0.231 by log-rank test P value .398A .951B *.001B .621B *.013B .888B .573B .991B .048B < 0.0001 B 0.316 0.216 0.046 0.629 0.283 0.081 0.120 0.006 0.001 0.009