What Sets Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Apart?
Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, but many patients who learn of their diagnosis may not understand what the term means.
This type of breast cancer lacks the three most common types of receptors that fuel breast cancer growth, according to Moffitt Cancer Center breast radiologist Dr. Shannon Falcon. The cells in triple-negative breast cancer do not have receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone and do not make much of the HER2 protein. Without these receptors, tumors do not respond to hormonal and other therapies that are often used to treat more common breast cancers.
“Even though there are fewer options, we still have very effective treatments,” Falcon said. “Triple-negative breast cancer can be treated with chemotherapy and sometimes immunotherapy. There are also some exciting clinical trials at Moffit showing excellent results with engineered oncolytic viruses in conjunction with chemotherapy.”
Therapies are usually combined with surgery and possibly radiation.
Similar to most breast cancers, early detection is key and Falcon encourages women to keep their annual mammograms on the calendar and to conduct monthly breast self-exams.
“Triple-negative breast cancer often presents as a palpable lump on the breast because it grows more rapidly than other breast cancers,” Falcon said. “It tends to occur more often in young women, women with the BRCA mutation and non-Hispanic Black women, but it can impact women of all ages and ethnicities.”
Triple-negative breast cancer is often found at a later stage and doctors may suspect this type of tumor based on its imaging characteristics. However, whether a cancer mass is discovered through mammography or a breast self-exam, pathology from an image guided breast biopsy will determine if it is triple negative.
At Moffitt, approximately a quarter of breast cancer patients have triple-negative tumors although it represents about 15% of all breast cancer patients in the general population.
“It’s higher among our patient population because we are a national comprehensive cancer center,” Falcon said. “So, even though it’s a less common form of breast cancer, we treat a fair number of women with triple-negative breast cancer at Moffitt.”
