Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Treatment can be Successful and Outcomes Improved
Edith Peterson Mitchell, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson President National Medical Association
growth of breast cancer: the estrogen re- ceptor, the progesterone receptor, and the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). TNBC makes up about 15-20% of all breast cancers diagnosed in the United States and is more commonly diagnosed in women younger than 40 and in African American women.
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This means that the breast cancers test negative for both hormone receptors and HER2 in the laboratory after biopsies, which means they are triple-negative. Triple negative breast cancers are predict- ably less likely to respond to and therefore not treated with commonly used hormonal therapies, including medications such as tamoxifen, Arimidex (chemical name: anastrozole), Aromasin (chemical name:
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riple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) describes cancers that lack any or much of the three most common types of receptors known to fuel the
exemestane), Femara (chemical name: letrozole), and Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant). Triple-negative breast cancer also is unlikely to respond to medications that target the epidermal growth recep- tor or HER2, such as Herceptin (chemical name: trastuzumab) or Tykerb (chemical name: lapatinib.
Clinically, triple negative breast cancers are more aggressive than are other types of breast cancer. They tend to grow more rapidly and are more likely to spread beyond the breast to other organs such as the liver, lungs and brain. Following what appears to be successful initial treatment TNBC is more likely to recur with spread to other organs. In addition to surgery and radiation TNBC, is treated by chemotherapy. Most triple negative tumors are in the laboratory are basal- like and most basal-like tumors are triple negative. However, not all triple negative tumors are basal-like and not all basal-like tumors are triple negative.
Most BRCA1-related breast cancers are both triple negative and basal-like.
Clinical studies have shown that other types of breast cancer generally have more favorable outcomes than TNBC, with improved survival and higher responses to treatment. One study of more than 1,500 Canadian women treated for breast cancer showed that the likelihood of distant re-
ALTHOUGH TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCERS ARE AGGRESSIVE, THEY CAN BE TREATED SUCCESSFULLY.
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