126 He J et al. / Triple negative breast cancer FIGURE 5. Pre-operative aspiration biopsy and pathological examination showed invasive ductal carcinoma (HE ×200). FIGURE 6. The residual cancer nests were not found after targeted chemotherapy (H&E×200). tasis was found in regional lymph nodes in 7 pa- tients after surgery. In the control group, of 19 pa- tients with an axillary lymph node metastasis, no metastasis was found in regional lymph nodes in 7 patients after surgery. The negative change ratio in a lymph node metastasis was 47.37% (7/19) in the targeted chemotherapy group and 26.31% (5/19) in the control group. The statistical analysis showed there were significant differences in the down- staging rate and negative change ratio between Radiol Oncol 2011; 45(2): 123-128. both groups (P=0.023 and 0.041, respectively). The efficacy of targeted chemotherapy was superior to traditional chemotherapy (P=0.018). The targeted chemotherapy was also superior to traditional chemotherapy in terms of cCR and pCR (P=0.016 and 0.018). Course of treatment In the targeted chemotherapy group, 18 patients and 6 patients received surgery after 1 course and 2 courses of chemotherapy, respectively. The mean duration of the treatment was 15 days. In the con- trol group, 8 patients and 15 patients received sur- gery after 1 course and 2 courses of chemotherapy, respectively. The mean course of the treatment was 31 days. A statistical analysis showed the mean course of the treatment in the targeted chemother- apy group was shorter than in the control group (P<0.01). Toxicity of treatment The grades of chemotherapy toxicity were 0 in 14 patients (58.3%), I in 7 patients (29.2%), II in 3 pa- tients (12.5%) in the targeted chemotherapy group; 0 in 12 patients (52.2%), I in 7 patients (30.4%), II in 4 patients (17.4%) in the control group. There was no significant difference in the degree of drug tox- icity between two groups (P>0.05). The toxicity of degree 0-1 can resolve spontaneously, and that of degree II can resolve within 1 week after the gen- eral treatment. Follow up The follow up period was 8-48 months after the surgery. A total of 41 patients (87.23%) completed the follow up and 6 were lost to the follow up. There were 22 patients (91.67%) in the targeted chemotherapy group and 19 patients (82.61%) in the control group completing a follow up. A total of 9 patients died within 2 years including 2 (at stage IV) in the targeted chemotherapy group and 7 in the control group (2 at stage II, 4 at stage III and 1 at stage IV). Discussion With the understanding of the genomic profile of breast cancer, the molecular biological types of breast cancer can be determined. Breast cancer of different subtypes may have significantly distinct