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What is Triple-Negative Breast Cancer?
Triple-negative breast cancer, accounts for 10-20% of all breast cancers, is is a type of breast cancer which lacks 3 of the tumor markers which are routinely examined for under the microscope – estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2 receptor. This type of breast cancer typically behaves aggressively and is associated with fast growth and spread.(1)(2) In addition to checking for the 3 tumor markers, your doctor may check your tumor cells for expression of a protein known as PD-L1. PD-L1 is expressed in 20% of triple negative breast cancers and suggests that the cancer cells are able to evade the immune system.(2)
Treatment Journey
This is an aggressive disease but there have been many advances in the field which includes a potential new treatment option involving the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors.(3)
One potential new treatment option involves the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors that target new treatment class PD-L1 and PD-1 proteins.(2)
References:
(1) Dent R, et al. Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Clinical Features and Patterns of Recurrence. Clin Cancer Res. 2007;13:4429-4434.
(2) Mittendorf EA, et al. PD-L1 Expression in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Cancer Immunol Res. 2014;2:361–370.
(3) Yin L, et al. Triple-negative breast cancer molecular subtyping and treatment progress. Breast Cancer Res.
2020;22:DOI:10.1186/s13058-020-01296-5