Impact of body mass index, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, physical activity and parity on disease course of women with triple-negative breast cancer

Objective To evaluate the potential impact of body mass index (BMI), smoking habit, alcohol consumption, physical activity and parity on disease course of women with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Material and methods This was a retrospective chart analysis of patients with TNBC. Primary target parameters were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) depending on BMI, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, physical activity and parity. Results were descriptively evaluated and plotted as Kaplan–Meier curves. The null hypothesis was tested using the non-parametric log-rank test. All patients were treated at the University Medical School of Saarland, Dept of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine. Results A total of 197 patients were analyzed. More than 50% of women were 40–60 years old (mean 57 years) and had a normal BMI. More than 88% of patients had either a T1 or T2 tumor, 64% were N0 and 66.5% had a G3 cancer. Thirty-four of 84 patients (40.38%) on neo-adjuvant chemotherapy reached a pathology-confirmed complete remission. During the follow-up (median 41.43 months), 34 (17.3%) patients had recurrent disease and 51 (25.9%) suffered from metastases. A total of 51 (25.9%) finally deceased. OS and DFS were not significantly impacted by BMI (OS: p = 0.4720; DFS: p = 0.2272), smoking habit ( p = 0.9892; p = 0.6040), alcohol consumption ( p = 0.6515; p = 0.7460), physical activity ( p = 0.3320; p = 0.5991) or parity ( p = 0.5929; 0.1417). Conclusion BMI, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, physical activity and parity had no impact on OS or DFS in women with TNBC.