Tonsil tissues were used as positive controls, while similarly treated samples absent the primary antibody were used as secondary controls. ER and PgR were judged as positive if the Allred score was ≥3 and as negative if the score was ≤2.24 HER2 overexpression was judged according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guidelines of 2007.25 TNBC tumours were, by definition, negative for ER, PgR and HER2. Here, PGR is linked to neoplasm.