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March 03, 2020
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Eight important updates for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Awareness Day

Today is Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for approximately 15% of all breast cancer cases.

The aggressive subtype is so named because the estrogen, progestin and HER2 receptors are not expressed. Most approved therapies target these receptors, making triple-negative disease difficult to treat and leading to poor prognosis.

Five-year survival rates are 91% for those with localized disease, 65% for those with regional disease and 11% for those with distant disease.

Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for 15% of all cases.
Source: Adobe

This breast cancer subtype is more common among women aged younger than 40 years, black women and those with BRCA1 mutations.

In conjunction with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Awareness Day, Healio and HemOnc Today present the following updates in research and treatment.

  • The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) to first-line chemotherapy significantly extended PFS among patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors express PD-L1, according to results of the randomized phase 3 KEYNOTE-355 study. Read more.
  • The addition of the AKT inhibitor capivasertib (AZD5363, AstraZeneca) to first-line paclitaxel extended PFS and OS among a cohort of women with previously untreated, metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Read more.
  • Detection of circulating tumor DNA after neoadjuvant chemotherapy appeared to independently predict disease recurrence among women with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer. Read more.
  • The addition of pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and as adjuvant therapy increased pathologic complete response among patients with high-risk triple-negative breast cancer, including those with stage III disease and those with lymph node involvement. Read more.
  • The addition of atezolizumab (Tecentriq, Genentech) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy failed to improve pathologic complete response rate for patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Read more.
  • In this commentary, Gregory A. Vidal, MD, PhD, and colleagues assert that investigations into new targets, combination therapies, other novel treatment strategies and biomarkers make this an “exciting time” for triple-negative breast cancer. Read more.
  • Pembrolizumab plus radiotherapy appeared safe and demonstrated encouraging clinical activity among a small cohort of women with poor-prognosis, metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Read more.
  • Chaitali Nangia, MD, MBBS, co-director of medical oncology at Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Medicine, provided an update on the QUILT-3.067 study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of metronomic combination therapy among patients with triple-negative breast cancer who progressed on or after standard-of-care chemotherapy. Read more.