Abstract

While breast cancer prognoses are generally good, different molecular subtypes are known to have varying outcomes. Previous studies using breast cancer registries have suggested that high parity may be an adverse prognostic factor in luminal breast cancer, but breast cancer subtype definitions have varied and there have been few prospective studies. We therefore collected prospective data from patients diagnosed with early breast cancer at a single institution and followed them for a median of 8.5 years. All patients (N = 594) were treated according to Finnish national guidelines using modern treatment modalities in a Finnish university hospital. Clinicopathological surrogates of the intrinsic breast cancer subtypes were updated to match European Society for Medical Oncology 2015 Early Breast Cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines. The overall 10-year breast cancer–specific survival (BCSS) was 91.4%, with the longest 10-year BCSS observed in luminal A-like cancers (97.9%) and the worst in luminal B-like (HER2 positive) cancers (80.6%). Parity of ≥ 5 deliveries was also associated with poor BCSS (univariate P = 0.0020). However, when the subtypes were assessed separately in a multivariate analysis that included tumor size and nodal status, high parity remained significant only in luminal B-like (HER2 negative) cancers (HR = 2.63; 95% confidence interval = 1.04–6.62; P = 0.040). Our results suggest excellent overall 10-year BCSS but indicate that high parity is an adverse prognostic factor in luminal B-like (HER2 negative) breast cancers.