OBJECTIVES: Breast cancer mortality has been declining overall in Europe during the last three decades. Notably the trend is less favorable in transitional European countries and in Poland and Romania breast cancer mortality is increasing. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of breast cancer that is usually more aggressive, harder to treat, and more likely to recur than cancers that are hormone receptor - positive (HR+) or human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 positive (HER2+). The current analysis estimated the mortality burden and the cost of lost productivity due to premature TNBC deaths in 8 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

METHODS: Number of TNBC deaths was estimated using incidence and survival data. The human capital approach (HCA) was used to estimate years of life lost (YLL) and present value of future productivity (PVFLP). Data were sourced from the Eurostat (age and sex specific mortality) and the World Bank (wages and employment rates).

RESULTS: In 2019 there were 4 438 TNBC deaths in 8 countries. We estimated that these cancer deaths resulted in 55 789 YLL. Annual PVFLP was estimated to 58,4 M€: 3,5 M€ in Bulgaria, 2,8 M€ in Croatia, 3,6 M€ in Czech Republic, 8,8 M€ in Hungary, 19,1 M€ in Poland, 10,2 M€ in Romania, 4 M€ in Serbia, 1,5 M€ in Slovenia and 4,9 M€ in Slovakia.

CONCLUSIONS: The YLL and productivity losses due to TNBC premature mortality are substantial in Central and Eastern Europe. This can be result of low median age of diagnosis with high recurrence rates in early TNBC and high progression rates in metastatic TNBC. Setting resource allocation priorities to TNBC could potentially decrease the productivity losses and the YLL to a great extent.