The mixed subtype has a worse prognosis than other histological subtypes: a retrospective analysis of 217 patients with metaplastic breast cancer

Objective Metaplastic breast cancer (MpBC) is an aggressive subtype of all breast cancer. We aimed to investigate the clinicopathological features, treatments and prognoses of MpBC patients. Methods We collected the data from MpBC patients diagnosed at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital from 2010 to 2017. Kaplan Meier curves and Cox regression model were used to evaluating clinical outcomes and prognostic factors. After removing baseline differences by propensity score matching (PSM), we analyzed the prognosis between MpBC patients and invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type (IDC-NST) patients. Results A total of 217 MpBC patients were subsumed. Of all histological subtypes, 45.1% were mixed subtypes, followed by with mesenchymal differentiation (27.2%), pure squamous (15.2%) and pure spindle (12.4%) subtypes. 69.6% of MpBC were triple-negative, 25.3% and 6.5% were HR-positive and HER2-positive. MpBC patients had worse survival compared to IDC-NST patients, with 5-year RFS of 73.8 and 83.6% (HR = 1.177 95%CI (1.171–2.676) P = 0.0068), and 5-year BCSS of 79.0% and 89.7% (HR = 2.187 95%CI (1.357–3.523) P = 0.0013). In the multivariate COX model, AJCC stage, mixed subtype and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors. Mixed MpBC is more aggressive than pure and with heterologous mesenchymal differentiation subtypes. And whether squamous or spindle MpBC, mixed forms have shorter outcomes than pure forms. Conclusions MpBCs are associated with poorer prognoses than IDC-NSTs. They are heterogeneous with different clinicopathological features and clinical outcomes between histological subtypes. Pure and with heterologous mesenchymal differentiation subtypes have more survival benefits than the mixed subtype.