Modern Algorithm for Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients with Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer is a type of cancer with unmet clinical need. “Triple negative” breast cancer is a tumor whose cells do not contain estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and do not have amplification Her 2/ neu . This type of breast cancer has the worst clinical outcome due to its aggressiveness, high heterogeneity, and lack of therapeutic targets. Chemotherapy is still the standard of care for this type of cancer, but many patients develop treatment resistance and metastases. In this article, we highlight existing challenges for effective treatment of triple negative breast cancer. We discuss the importance of stratification into different molecular subtypes and identification of resistant cells in tumors, which is necessary to identify future strategies for effective and precise therapy. Targeted therapy for this type of breast cancer is limited, and patients are primarily treated with conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapies, which are not specific and do not target resistant cells. Thus, one of the major clinical challenges is to find compounds that target drug-resistant cell populations responsible for the transformation of secondary tumors. Molecular profiling of different TNBC subtypes offers hope for better identifying these tumor-specific resistant cells.