Triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is any breast cancer that either lacks or shows low levels of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression and/or gene amplification (i.e. the tumor is negative on all three tests giving the name triple-negative).[1] Triple-negative is sometimes used as a surrogate term for basal-like.[2]

Triple-negative breast cancer comprises 15–20% of all breast cancer cases[3] and affects more young women or women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene than other breast cancers.[4] Triple-negative breast cancers comprise a very heterogeneous group of cancers. TNBC is the most challenging breast cancer type to treat.[5] Hormone therapy that is used for other breast cancers does not work for TNBC.[6] In its early stages, the cancer is typically treated through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. In later stages where surgery is not possible or the cancer has spread from the initial localised area, treatment is limited to chemotherapy and in some cases further targeted therapy.[6]

Triple-negative breast cancers have a relapse pattern that is very different from hormone-positive breast cancers where the risk of relapse is much higher for the first 3–5 years, but drops sharply and substantially below that of hormone-positive breast cancers afterwards.[2][7]

  1. ^ Foulkes WD, Smith IE, Reis-Filho JS (November 2010). "Triple-negative breast cancer". The New England Journal of Medicine. 363 (20): 1938–48. doi:10.1056/Nejmra1001389. PMID 21067385. S2CID 205115843.
  2. ^ a b Hudis CA, Gianni L (2011). "Triple-negative breast cancer: an unmet medical need". The Oncologist. 16 (Suppl 1): 1–11. doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2011-S1-01. PMID 21278435. S2CID 22362118.
  3. ^ Sporikova Z, Koudelakova V, Trojanec R, Hajduch M (October 2018). "Genetic Markers in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer". Clinical Breast Cancer. 18 (5): e841–e850. doi:10.1016/j.clbc.2018.07.023. PMID 30146351. S2CID 52091594.
  4. ^ "Old drugs bring new hope to a cancer that lacks precision therapy". www.uchicagomedicine.org. Retrieved 2022-02-23.
  5. ^ Garrido-Castro AC, Lin NU, Polyak K (2019). "Insights into Molecular Classifications of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Improving Patient Selection for Treatment". Cancer Discovery. 9 (2): 176–198. doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-18-1177. PMC 6387871. PMID 30679171.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference cancer22 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cheang MC, Voduc D, Bajdik C, Leung S, McKinney S, Chia SK, et al. (March 2008). "Basal-like breast cancer defined by five biomarkers has superior prognostic value than triple-negative phenotype". Clinical Cancer Research. 14 (5): 1368–76. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-07-1658. PMID 18316557.