If your doctor has diagnosed you with triple negative breast cancer, you may be wondering what your next steps should be. Treatment options are limited, as the cancer cells lack progesterone and estrogen receptors. They also lack a protein called HER2 that promotes breast cancer growth. Without these proteins, treatment options are limited to chemotherapy. This type of cancer does not respond to targeted therapies, such as hormone therapy, which can kill healthy cells while sparing cancer cells.
A doctor can recommend chemotherapy or surgery for women with triple-negative breast cancer. Chemotherapy can shrink a large tumor, minimizing the risk of it coming back. Certain surgeries may be followed by radiation. Patients with stage IV cancer may also be treated with immunotherapy or platinum chemotherapy. These treatments will work to target the cancer cells and improve the body’s immune system. If your doctor determines that chemotherapy is the best course of treatment for your cancer, he or she may recommend immunotherapy.
Because chemotherapy is not effective for triple-negative breast cancer, many patients are treated aggressively. About 60% of triple-negative breast cancer patients live for five years or more without developing symptoms. However, approximately 40% of triple-negative patients will experience a rapid recurrence. There are currently no clinical tests that can determine a patient’s prognosis, so doctors often rely on a combination of four chemotherapy drugs and six months of treatment to cure the disease. Varley’s findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, may change this practice and allow doctors to prescribe more targeted treatments. The research could also lead to the development of a personalized prognosis for triple-negative patients.
Researchers Milan Radovich, PhD, and Bryan Schneider, MD, have reported that women with circulating tumor DNA have a 52 percent chance of remaining cancer-free compared to women with no circulating tumor DNA. These findings highlight the potential of genomic-directed treatments for triple-negative breast cancer patients. The IU Precision Health Initiative (PHI) Grand Challenge is focused on finding cures for the disease. They say a cure for triple-negative breast cancer is possible if doctors can predict its progression.
The study also shows that high numbers of TILs are associated with increased neoadjuvant chemotherapy responses in TNBC. These data suggest that TILs may be an important prognostic factor in standard treatments for triple-negative breast cancer. However, there are several factors that influence the TIL score. These include T-cell numbers, circulating tumor DNA, and patient’s age. Once a patient is diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a physician can prescribe a treatment based on her TIL score.
Although genetic testing for triple-negative breast cancer is not an effective means of preventing this disease, it can reduce the risk of the disease by a great deal. For women who are at high risk, prophylactic mastectomy may be the best option. It involves the removal of one or both breasts, as well as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. While a double mastectomy or an oophorectomy is not recommended for most women, these procedures have been shown to reduce breast cancer risk by up to 90 percent in those women with genetic risk.
