Triple negative breast cancer doesn’t have estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors. So doctors use different drugs to treat it.
Doctors often find TNBC through mammograms or ultrasound tests. They may also take a biopsy to look at tissue under a microscope.
Doctors treat TNBC with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. They use platinum-based medicines like carboplatin and cisplatin, usually given before surgery (neoadjuvant) to shrink the tumor or after surgery (adjuvant).
Symptoms
Triple negative breast cancer is a type of breast cancer that has a high rate of recurrence after treatment. This is partly because it spreads more quickly than other types of breast cancer. It doesn’t respond to drugs that target hormone receptors like estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).
People who have this type of breast cancer usually get it at a younger age than other types of breast cancer. And they tend to have higher grade tumors and a more aggressive spread of the cancer into visceral organs such as the brain, lungs, and liver.
TNBC gets its name because doctors test the tumor cells for three receptors that fuel breast cancer growth. These are the estrogen and progesterone receptors, as well as HER2. If the cancer cells test negative for all of them, doctors call it TNBC.
Symptoms of this type of breast cancer are similar to those of other types of breast cancer, including a lump or mass in the breast, skin changes, and nipple discharge. But TNBC is harder to treat than other forms of breast cancer because it doesn’t respond to the hormone treatments that work against other types of breast cancer.
Doctors use a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation to treat TNBC. Surgery includes a mastectomy or lumpectomy, depending on the extent of the disease. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells and reduce the chances that the cancer will return. It can be given before surgery (neoadjuvant chemotherapy) or after surgery (adjuvant chemotherapy).
While it’s not possible to prevent triple negative breast cancer, you can take steps to lower your risk of getting this kind of breast cancer. These include being aware of the symptoms, getting regular screenings, and staying at a healthy weight. You can also talk to your doctor about genetic testing if you have a family history of this type of cancer. This can help you learn about your risk and determine whether you might benefit from a genetic test for the BRCA genes, which can cause some types of breast cancer.
Diagnosis
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) doesn’t have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors or the overexpression of HER2 that fuel most other types of breast cancer. It tends to be more aggressive and have a higher recurrence rate within five years of diagnosis than other breast cancer subtypes. TNBC is more common in younger women, African Americans and Hispanics and those with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.
Doctors diagnose breast cancer through a mammogram or other tests, such as ultrasound or CT scans, that check for abnormal areas in the breast. They may also do a biopsy, which involves cutting out some of the breast tissue to examine the cells under a microscope. Doctors can also test for the presence of certain proteins that help cancer grow, or for a particular hormone to see if it’s affecting the growth of the cancer cells.
If doctors confirm that you have breast cancer, they’ll decide the best treatment plan for you. You might get chemotherapy or surgery, or both. They might also give you radiation, which uses high-energy rays to destroy the breast tumor and surrounding healthy tissues.
Until recently, doctors weren’t sure how to treat TNBC effectively. But now, there are clinical trials testing new medicines that might make it easier to get rid of this type of breast cancer. Talk with your doctor about whether a clinical trial is right for you.
TNBC is more likely to recur than ER positive breast cancer, but this risk decreases with time. If your cancer comes back, doctors will use the same tests to figure out where the recurrence is and what the best treatment might be.
TNBC treatments are more likely to cause side effects than other breast cancer treatments. Some of these might include chemotherapy or other medicines that affect your blood cells. But it’s important to remember that everyone reacts differently, so you might not experience these side effects at all. If you do have side effects, your healthcare provider will explain how to manage them. They can also tell you about ways to prevent side effects, such as limiting alcohol and being physically active.
Treatment
In the past, most doctors treated breast cancer by surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Triple negative breast cancer cells don’t have receptors for estrogen or progesterone, and they lack the gene that makes HER2 proteins, so those tumors are harder to treat than other kinds of breast cancer. But with advances in treatments, scientists have been able to develop more options for patients.
In fact, researchers have already found that patients with triple negative breast cancer have better outcomes than they used to. That’s thanks to newer medicines that target HER2 or the proteins that cause cancer to grow, and because of improvements in surgery and radiation. But there’s still work to do. The overall survival rate for patients with triple negative breast cancer hasn’t improved as much as the rates for HR-positive and HER2-positive disease.
Women with triple negative breast cancer can often have a better chance of surviving the disease if they follow an active treatment plan that includes regular visits to their doctor. That’s especially important in the first 3 years after diagnosis, when patients should go to their doctor every 3 months. They should also tell their doctor right away if they have any new symptoms, such as swelling, skin dimpling or pain in one or both breasts.
If a patient’s doctor suspects that they have cancer, the doctor might order a mammogram or an ultrasound to look at the tissue inside their breast. If they see abnormal areas, the doctor may do a biopsy to cut out a small sample of tissue for testing. A pathologist will look at the sample under a microscope to find out whether or not it’s cancerous and what kind of cancer it is.
A woman’s doctor might recommend a certain treatment plan depending on how far the breast cancer has spread at the time of her biopsy. If the breast cancer is only in the local area (stage 0 or stage I), the chances of survival are very good. But if it’s in the nearby lymph nodes or in the more distant areas of the body, the chances of survival aren’t as high.
Prevention
The good news is that most breast cancers are diagnosed through screening tests, such as a mammogram. Women of all ages should talk to their doctor about screening options. They should also be familiar with their own bodies so they can recognize any changes, such as a lump or tenderness in the breast, skin dimpling, pain, nipple retraction or discharge.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is less common than other types of breast cancer, but it still affects about 15 percent of all invasive breast cancer cases. It tends to be more advanced and aggressive than other subtypes of breast cancer when it’s diagnosed. It’s also more likely to spread to other parts of the body, especially when it’s in an advanced stage. And it has a stronger association with certain gene mutations, particularly the BRCA1 gene, than other types of breast cancer.
Researchers don’t know exactly what causes triple-negative breast cancer, but it is often linked to a family history of the disease. It’s also more common in younger people and in African Americans and Hispanics. And it’s associated with certain mutations in the BRCA1 gene that increase a person’s risk for breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer.
Because triple-negative breast cancer doesn’t have receptors for the female hormones estrogen and progesterone or for a protein called HER2, it grows more quickly than other types of breast cancer. A study comparing how much tumors grew from the time they were first diagnosed to when they were removed found that triple-negative breast cancer tumors grew by about 1% each day.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to prevent this type of breast cancer from developing. The most important thing is to get regular mammograms. This is the best way to detect cancer early, before it’s likely to spread. It’s also important for women of all ages to practice self-breast exams, especially as they approach menopause. And they should let their doctors know about any new or unusual breast symptoms, such as a lump, pain or nipple retraction. This information can help their doctor determine if the symptom is normal or needs further investigation.
