Abstract
Purpose
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous group of tumors comprising various breast cancers simply defined by the absence of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 gene. In this review, we discuss the epidemiology, risk factors, clinical characteristics and prognostic variables of TNBC, and present the summary of recommended treatment strategies and all other available treatment options.
Methods
We performed a systematic literature search using Medline and selected those articles which seemed relevant for this review. In addition, the ClinicalTrials.gov was also scanned for ongoing trials.
Results
TNBC accounts for 10–20 % of all invasive breast cancers and has been found to be associated with African–American race, younger age, higher grade and mitotic index, and more advanced stage at diagnosis. Locoregional treatment is similar to other invasive breast cancer subtypes and involves surgery—mastectomy with or without adjuvant radiotherapy or breast conservation followed by adjuvant radiotherapy. Due to lack of drug-targetable receptors, chemotherapy is the only recommended systemic treatment to improve disease outcome. TNBC is sensitive to chemotherapy as demonstrated by high pathological complete response rates achieved after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and this approach also allows for breast-conserving surgery. The peak risk of relapse is at 3 years after surgery, thereafter recurrence risk rapidly decreases. Survival after metastatic relapse is shorter as compared to other breast cancer subtypes, treatment options are few and response rates are poor and lack durability. Important molecular characteristics have now been identified that can subdivide this group of breast cancers further and can provide alternative systemic therapies.
Conclusions
To improve therapeutic outcome of TNBC, reliable predictive biomarkers and newer drugs against the known molecular pathways are required.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boyle P (2006) The globalisation of cancer. Lancet 368:629–630
Jemal A, Bray F, Center MM, Ferlay J, Ward E, Forman D (2011) Global cancer statistics. CA Cancer J Clin 61:69–90
Autier P, Boniol M, La Vecchia C, Vatten L, Gavin A, Héry C, Heanue M (2010) Disparities in breast cancer mortality trends between 30 European countries: retrospective trend analysis of WHO mortality database. Br Med J 341:c3620
Engebraaten O, Vollan HK, Børresen-Dale AL (2013) Triple-negative breast cancer and the need for new therapeutic targets. Am J Pathol 183:1064–1074
Nielsen TO, Hsu FD, Jensen K et al (2004) Immunohistochemical and clinical characterization of the basal-like subtype of invasive breast carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 10:5367–5374
Perou CM, Sorlie T, Eisen MB et al (2000) Molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature 406:747–752
Sørlie T, Perou CM, Tibshirani R et al (2001) Gene expression patterns of breast carcinomas distinguish tumor subclasses with clinical implications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:10869–10874
Voduc KD, Cheang MC, Tyldesley S, Gelmon K, Nielsen TO, Kennecke H (2010) Breast cancer subtypes and the risk of local and regional relapse. J Clin Oncol 28:1684–1691
Krishnamurthy S, Poornima R, Challa VR, Goud YG (2012) Triple negative breast cancer—our experience and review. Indian J Surg Oncol 3:12–16
Rakha EA, Putti TC, Abd El-Rehim DM et al (2006) Morphological and immunophenotypic analysis of breast carcinomas with basal and myoepithelial differentiation. J Pathol 208:495–506
van de Rijn M, Perou CM, Tibshirani R et al (2002) Expression of cytokeratins 17 and 5 identifies a group of breast carcinomas with poor clinical outcome. Am J Pathol 161:1991–1996
Sotiriou C, Pusztai L (2009) Gene-expression signatures in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 360:790–800
Goldhirsch A, Wood WC, Coates AS, Gelber RD, Thürlimann B, Senn HJ, Panel members (2011) Strategies for subtypes–dealing with the diversity of breast cancer: highlights of the St. Gallen International Expert Consensus on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer 2011. Ann Oncol 22:1736–1747
Vona-Davis L, Rose DP, Hazard H, Howard-McNatt M, Adkins F, Partin J, Hobbs G (2008) Triple-negative breast cancer and obesity in a rural Appalachian population. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 17:3319–3324
Carey LA, Perou CM, Livasy CA et al (2006) Race, breast cancer subtypes, and survival in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. JAMA 295:2492–2502
Rakha EA, El-Rehim DA, Paish C et al (2006) Basal phenotype identifies a poor prognostic subgroup of breast cancer of clinical importance. Eur J Cancer 42:3149–3156
Rakha EA, Reis-Filho JS, Ellis IO (2008) Basal-like breast cancer: a critical review. J Clin Oncol 26:2568–2581
Carey LA (2011) Directed therapy of subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer. Oncologist 16:71–78
Bertucci F, Finetti P, Cervera N, Esterni B, Hermitte F, Viens F, Birnbaum D (2008) How basal are triple-negative breast cancers? Int J Cancer 123:236–240
Rakha EA, El-Sayed ME, Green AR et al (2007) Prognostic markers in triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer 109:25–32
Reis-Filho JS, Tutt AN (2008) Triple negative tumours: a critical review. Histopathology 52:108–118
Brouckaert O, Wildiers H, Floris G, Neven P (2012) Update on triple-negative breast cancer: prognosis and management strategies. Int J Womens Health 4:511–520
Fisher B, Brown AM, Dimitrov NV et al (1990) Two months of doxorubicin–cyclophosphamide with and without interval reinduction therapy compared with 6 months of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil in positive-node breast cancer patients with tamoxifen-nonresponsive tumors: results from the National Surgical adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-15. J Clin Oncol 8:1483–1496
Roché H, Fumoleau P, Spielmann M et al (2006) Sequential adjuvant epirubicin-based and docetaxel chemotherapy for node-positive breast cancer patients: the FNCLCC PACS 01 Trial. J Clin Oncol 24:5664–5671
Harvey JM, Clark GM, Osborne CK, Allred DC (1999) Estrogen receptor status by immunohistochemistry is superior to the ligand-binding assay for predicting response to adjuvant endocrine therapy in breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 17:1474–1481
Press MF, Slamon DJ, Flom KJ, Park J, Zhou JY, Bernstein L (2002) Evaluation of HER-2/neu gene amplification and overexpression: comparison of frequently used assay methods in a molecularly characterized cohort of breast cancer specimens. J Clin Oncol 20:3095–3105
Oyama T, Ishikawa Y, Hayashi M, Arihiro K, Horiguchi J (2007) The effects of fixation, processing and evaluation criteria on immunohistochemical detection of hormone receptors in breast cancer. Breast Cancer 14:182–188
Ross JS, Symmans WF, Pusztai L, Hortobagyi GN (2007) Standardizing slide-based assays in breast cancer: hormone receptors, HER2, and sentinel lymph nodes. Clin Cancer Res 13:2831–2835
Gown AM (2008) Current issues in ER and HER2 testing by IHC in breast cancer. Mod Pathol 21:S8–S15
Hammond ME, Hayes DF, Dowsett M et al (2010) American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guideline recommendations for immunohistochemical testing of estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 28:2784–2795
Wolff AC, Hammond ME, Schwartz JN et al (2007) American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guideline recommendations for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 testing in breast cancer. Arch Pathol Lab Med 131:18–43
Bauer KR, Brown M, Cress RD, Parise CA, Caggiano V (2007) Descriptive analysis of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative, progesterone receptor (PR)-negative, and HER2-negative invasive breast cancer, the so-called triple-negative phenotype: a population-based study from the California Cancer Registry. Cancer 109:1721–1728
Stark A, Kleer CG, Martin I et al (2010) African ancestry and higher prevalence of triple-negative breast cancer: findings from an international study. Cancer 116:4926–4932
Rauh C, Gass P, Heusinger K et al (2014) Association of molecular subtypes with breast cancer risk factors: a case-only analysis. Eur J Cancer Prev (epub ahead of print)
Kwan ML, Kushi LH, Weltzien E et al (2009) Epidemiology of breast cancer subtypes in two prospective cohort studies of breast cancer survivors. Breast Cancer Res 11:R31
Millikan RC, Newman B, Tse CK et al (2008) Epidemiology of basal-like breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 109:123–139
Phipps AI, Chlebowski RT, Prentice R et al (2011) Reproductive history and oral contraceptive use in relation to risk of triple-negative breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 103:470–477
Dolle JM, Daling JR, White E, Brinton LA, Doody DR, Porter PL, Malone KE (2009) Risk factors for triple-negative breast cancer in women under the age of 45 years. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 18:1157–1166
Kabat GC, Kim M, Phipps AI et al (2011) Smoking and alcohol consumption in relation to risk of triple-negative breast cancer in a cohort of postmenopausal women. Cancer Causes Control 22:775–783
Yang XR, Chang-Claude J, Goode EL et al (2011) Associations of breast cancer risk factors with tumor subtypes: a pooled analysis from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium studies. J Natl Cancer Inst 103:250–263
Maiti B, Kundranda MN, Spiro TP et al (2010) The association of metabolic syndrome with triple-negative breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 121:479–483
Pichard C, Plu-Bureau G, Neves-E Castro M, Gompel A (2008) Insulin resistance, obesity and breast cancer risk. Maturitas 60:19–30
Evans DG, Howell A (2012) Are we ready for online tools in decision making for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers? J Clin Oncol 30:471–473
Lakhani SR, Van De Vijver MJ, Jacquemier J, Anderson TJ, Osin PF, McGuffog L, Easton DF (2002) The pathology of familial breast cancer: predictive value of immunohistochemical markers estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, HER-2, and p53 in patients with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. J Clin Oncol 20:2310–2318
Atchley DP, Albarracin CT, Lopez A et al (2008) Clinical and pathologic characteristics of patients with BRCA-positive and BRCA-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 26:4282–4288
Comen EA, Davids M, Kirchhoff T et al (2008) Prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in Jewish women with triple negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 26:749sSuppl:abstr 22002
Robertson L, Hanson H, Seal S et al (2012) BRCA1 testing should be offered to individuals with triple negative breast cancer diagnosed below 50 years. Br J Cancer 106:1234–1238
Evans DG, Howell A, Ward D et al (2011) Prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in triple negative breast cancer. J Med Genet 48:520–522
Andrés R, Pajares I, Balmaña J et al (2014) Association of BRCA1 germline mutations in young onset triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Clin Transl Oncol 16:280–284
Couch F, Hart SN, Sharma P et al (2014) Inherited mutations in 17 breast cancer susceptibility genes among a large triple-negative breast cancer cohort unselected for family history of breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 33:304–311
Stevens KN, Vachon CM, Lee AM et al (2011) Common breast cancer susceptibility loci are associated with triple negative breast cancer. Cancer Res 71:6240–6249
Stevens KN, Fredericksen Z, Vachon CM et al (2012) 19p13.1 is a triple negative-specific breast cancer susceptibility locus. Cancer Res 72:1795–1803
Purrington KS, Slager S, Eccles D et al (2014) Genome-wide association study identifies 25 known breast cancer susceptibility loci as risk factors for triple-negative breast cancer. Carcinogenesis 35:1012–1019
Shah SP, Roth A, Goya R et al (2012) The clonal and mutational evolution spectrum of primary triple-negative breast cancers. Nature 486:395–399
Dent R, Trudeau M, Pritchard KI et al (2007) Triple-negative breast cancer: clinical features and patterns of recurrence. Clin Cancer Res 13:4429–4434
Montagna E, Maisonneuve P, Rotmensz N et al (2013) Heterogeneity of triple-negative breast cancer: histologic subtyping to inform the outcome. Clin Breast Cancer 13:31–39
Azoulay S, Laé M, Fréneaux P et al (2005) KIT is highly expressed in adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast, a basal-like carcinoma associated with a favorable outcome. Mod Pathol 18:1623–1631
Fourquet A, Vilcoq JR, Zafrani B, Schlienger F, Jullien D, Campana F (1987) Medullary breast carcinoma: the role of radiotherapy as primary treatment. Radiother Oncol 10:1–6
Dendale R, Vincent-Salomon A, Mouret-Fourme E et al (2003) Medullary breast carcinoma: prognostic implications of p53 expression. Int J Biol Markers 18:99–105
Hennessy BT, Giordano S, Broglio K et al (2006) Biphasic metaplastic sarcomatoid carcinoma of the breast. Ann Oncol 17:605–613
Dowsett M, Cuzick J, Wale C, Howell T, Houghton J, Baum M (2005) Retrospective analysis of time to recurrence in the ATAC trial according to hormone receptor status: an hypothesis-generating study. J Clin Oncol 23:7512–7517
Crabb SJ, Cheang MC, Leung S, Immonen T, Nielsen TO, Huntsman DD, Bajdik CD, Chia SK (2008) Basal breast cancer molecular subtype predicts for lower incidence of axillary lymph node metastases in primary breast cancer. Clin Breast Cancer 8:249–256
Tan DS, Marchió C, Jones RL, Savage K, Smith IE, Dowsett M, Reis-Filho JS (2008) Triple negative breast cancer: molecular profiling and prognostic impact in adjuvant anthracycline-treated patients. Breast Cancer Res Treat 111:27–44
Yang WT, Dryden M, Broglio K et al (2008) Mammographic features of triple receptor-negative primary breast cancers in young premenopausal women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 111:405–410
Wang Y, Ikeda DM, Narasimhan B, Longacre TA, Bleicher RJ, Pal S, Jackman RJ, Jeffrey SS (2008) Estrogen receptor-negative invasive breast cancer: imaging features of tumors with and without human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 overexpression. Radiology 246:367–375
Dogan BE, Gonzalez-Angulo AM, Gilcrease M, Dryden MJ, Yang WT (2010) Multimodality imaging of triple receptor-negative tumors with mammography, ultrasound, and MRI. AJR Am J Roentgenol 194:1160–1166
Ko ES, Lee BH, Kim HA, Noh WC, Kim MS, Lee SA (2010) Triple-negative breast cancer: correlation between imaging and pathological findings. Eur Radiol 20:1111–1117
Heusinger K, Jud SM, Häberle L et al (2012) Association of mammographic density with hormone receptors in invasive breast cancers: Results from a case-only study. Int J Cancer 131:2643–2649
Lerma E, Peiro G, Ramón T et al (2007) Immunohistochemical heterogeneity of breast carcinomas negative for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and Her2/neu (basal-like breast carcinomas). Mod Pathol 20:1200–1207
Uematsu T, Kasami M, Yuen S (2009) Triple-negative breast cancer: correlation between MR imaging and pathologic findings. Radiology 250:638–647
Dogan BE, Turnbull LW (2012) Imaging of triple-negative breast cancer. Ann Oncol 23:vi23–vi29
Basu S, Chen W, Tchou J, Mavi A, Cermik T, Czerniecki B, Schnall M, Alavi A (2008) Comparison of triple-negative and estrogen receptor-positive/progesterone receptor-positive/HER2-negative breast carcinoma using quantitative fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose/positron emission tomography imaging parameters: a potentially useful method for disease characterization. Cancer 112:995–1000
Straver ME, Aukema TS, Olmos RA, Rutgers EJ, Gilhuijs KG, Schot ME, Vogel WV, Peeters MJ (2010) Feasibility of FDG PET/CT to monitor the response of axillary lymph node metastases to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 37:1069–1076
Kennecke H, Yerushalmi R, Woods R, Cheang MC, Voduc D, Speers CH, Nielsen TO, Gelmon K (2010) Metastatic behavior of breast cancer subtypes. J Clin Oncol 28:3271–3277
Jatoi I, Anderson WF, Jeong JH, Redmond CK (2011) Breast cancer adjuvant therapy: time to consider its time-dependent effects. J Clin Oncol 29:2301–2304
Montagna E, Bagnardi V, Rotmensz N et al (2012) Breast cancer subtypes and outcome after local and regional relapse. Ann Oncol 23:324–331
Smid M, Wang Y, Zhang Y, Sieuwerts AM, Yu J, Klijn JG, Foekens JA, Martens JW (2008) Subtypes of breast cancer show preferential site of relapse. Cancer Res 68:3108–3114
Heitz F, Harter P, Traut A, Lueck HJ, Beutel B, du Bois A (2008) Cerebral metastases (CM) in breast can-cer (BC) with focus on triple-negative tumors. J Clin Oncol 26,15 s Suppl:abst 1010
Aleskandarany MA, Green AR, Benhasouna AA, Barros FF, Neal K, Reis-Filho JS, Ellis IO, Rakha EA (2012) Prognostic value of proliferation assay in the luminal, HER2-positive, and triple-negative biologic classes of breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 14:R3
Peng Y (2012) Potential prognostic tumor biomarkers in triple-negative breast carcinoma. Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao 44:666–672
Cancello G, Maisonneuve P, Rotmensz N et al (2011) Prognosis in women with small (T1 mic, T1a, T1b) node-negative operable breast cancer by immunohistochemically selected subtypes. Breast Cancer Res Treat 127:713–720
von Minckwitz G, Untch M, Blohmer JU et al (2012) Definition and impact of pathologic complete response on prognosis after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in various intrinsic breast cancer subtypes. J Clin Oncol 30:1796–1804
Liedtke C, Mazouni C, Hess KR et al (2008) Response to neoadjuvant therapy and long-term survival in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 26:1275–1281
Straver ME, Glas AM, Hannemann J et al (2010) The 70-gene signature as a response predictor for neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 119:551–558
Yerushalmi R, Woods R, Ravdin PM, Hayes MM, Gelmon KA (2010) Ki67 in breast cancer: prognostic and predictive potential. Lancet Oncol 11:174–183
Fasching PA, Heusinger K, Haeberle L et al (2011) Ki67, chemotherapy response, and prognosis in breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant treatment. BMC Cancer 11:486
Schmidt G, Meyberg-Solomayer G, Gerlinger C et al (2014) Identification of prognostic different subgroups in triple negative breast cancer by Her2-neu protein expression. Arch Gynecol Obstet 290:1221–1229
Bianchini G, Qi Y, Alvarez RH et al (2010) Molecular anatomy of breast cancer stroma and its prognostic value in estrogen receptor-positive and -negative cancers. J Clin Oncol 28:4316–4323
Győrffy B, Hatzis C, Sanft T, Hofstatter E, Aktas B, Pusztai L (2015) Multigene prognostic tests in breast cancer: past, present, future. Breast Cancer Res 17:11
Aapro M, Wildiers H (2012) Triple-negative breast cancer in the older population. Ann Oncol 23(Suppl 6):vi52–vi55
Parker CC, Ampil F, Burton G, Li BD, Chu QD (2010) Is breast conservation therapy a viable option for patients with triple-receptor negative breast cancer? Surgery 148:386–391
Solin LJ, Hwang WT, Vapiwala N (2009) Outcome after breast conservation treatment with radiation for women with triple-negative early-stage invasive breast carcinoma. Clin Breast Cancer 9:96–100
Panoff JE, Hurley J, Takita C et al (2011) Risk of locoregional recurrence by receptor status in breast cancer patients receiving modern systemic therapy and post-mastectomy radiation. Breast Cancer Res Treat 128:899–906
Eiermann W, Vallis KA (2012) Locoregional treatments for triple-negative breast cancer. Ann Oncol 23(Suppl6):vi30–vi34
Gonzalez-Angulo AM, Timms KM, Liu S et al (2011) Incidence and outcome of BRCA mutations in unselected patients with triple receptor-negative breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res 17:1082–1089
Bayraktar S, Gutierrez-Barrera AM, Liu D et al (2011) Outcome of triple-negative breast cancer in patients with or without deleterious BRCA mutations. Breast Cancer Res Treat 130:145–153
Dragun AE, Pan J, Rai SN, Kruse B, Jain D (2011) Locoregional recurrence in patients with triple-negative breast cancer: preliminary results of a single institution study. Am J Clin Oncol 34:231–237
Abdulkarim BS, Cuartero J, Hanson J, Deschênes J, Lesniak D, Sabri S (2011) Increased risk of locoregional recurrence for women with T1-2N0 triple-negative breast cancer treated with modified radical mastectomy without adjuvant radiation therapy compared with breast-conserving therapy. J Clin Oncol 29:2852–2858
Jagsi R, Raad RA, Goldberg S, Sullivan T, Michaelson J, Powell SN, Taghian AG (2005) Locoregional recurrence rates and prognostic factors for failure in node-negative patients treated with mastectomy: implications for postmastectomy radiation. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 62:1035–1039
Truong PT, Lesperance M, Culhaci A, Kader HA, Speers CH, Olivotto IA (2005) Patient subsets with T1-T2, node negative breast cancer at high locoregional recurrence risk after mastectomy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 62:175–182
Aebi S, Davidson T, Gruber G, Cardoso F, ESMO Guidelines Working Group (2011) Primary breast cancer: ESMO clinical practice guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ann Oncol 22(Suppl6):vi12–vi24
Breast Cancer v2 (2014) National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines). http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/breast.pdf. Accessed 21 July 2014
Kyndi M, Sorensen FB, Knudsen H, Overgaard M, Nielsen HM, Overgaard J, Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group (2008) Estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, HER-2, and response to postmastectomy radiotherapy in high-risk breast cancer: the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group. J Clin Oncol 26:1419–1426
Chen X, Yu X, Chen J, Yang Z, Shao Z, Zhang Z, Guo X, Feng Y (2013) Radiotherapy can improve the disease-free survival rate in triple-negative breast cancer patients with T1-T2 disease and one to three positive lymph nodes after mastectomy. Oncologist 18:141–147
Carey LA, Dees EC, Sawyer L et al (2007) The triple negative paradox: primary tumor chemosensitivity of breast cancer subtypes. Clin Cancer Res 13:2329–2334
Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG, Clarke M, Coates AS, Darby SC et al (2008) Adjuvant chemotherapy in oestrogen-receptor-poor breast cancer: patient-level meta-analysis of randomised trials. Lancet 371:29–40
Berry DA, Cirrincione C, Henderson IC et al (2006) Estrogen-receptor status and outcomes of modern chemotherapy for patients with node-positive breast cancer. JAMA 295:1658–1667
Rastogi P, Anderson SJ, Bear HD et al (2008) Preoperative chemotherapy: updates of National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Protocols B-18 and B-27. J Clin Oncol 26:778–785
Cortazar P, Zhang L, Untch M et al (2014) Pathological complete response and long-term clinical benefit in breast cancer: the CTNeoBC pooled analysis. Lancet 384:164–172
Huober J, von Minckwitz G, Denkert C et al (2010) Effect of neoadjuvant anthracycline-taxane-based chemotherapy in different biological breast cancer phenotypes: overall results from the GeparTrio study. Breast Cancer Res Treat 124:133–140
De Laurentiis M, Cancello G, D’Agostino D et al (2008) Taxane-based combinations as adjuvant chemotherapy of early breast cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized trials. J Clin Oncol 26:44–53
Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG), Peto R, Davies C, Godwin J et al (2012) Comparisons between different polychemotherapy regimens for early breast cancer: meta-analyses of long-term outcome among 100,000 women in 123 randomised trials. Lancet 379:432–444
Metzger-Filho O, Tutt A, de Azambuja E et al (2012) Dissecting the heterogeneity of triple-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 30:1879–1887
Rouzier R, Perou CM, Symmans WF et al (2005) Breast cancer molecular subtypes respond differently to preoperative chemotherapy. Clin Cancer Res 11:5678–5685
Martin M, Romero A, Lopez Garcia-Asenjo J et al (2010) Molecular and genomic predictors of response to single-agent doxorubicin (ADR) versus single-agent docetaxel (DOC) in primary breast cancer (PBC). J Clin Oncol 28(15suppl):502
Martin M, Romero A, Cheang MC et al (2011) Genomic predictors of response to doxorubicin versus docetaxel in primary breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 128:127–136
Smith LA, Cornelius VR, Plummer CJ, Levitt G, Verrill M, Canney F, Jones A (2010) Cardiotoxicity of anthracycline agents for the treatment of cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMC Cancer 10:337
von Minckwitz G, Untch M, Nuesch E et al (2011) Impact of treatment characteristics on response of different breast cancer phenotypes: pooled analysis of the German neo-adjuvant chemotherapy trials. Breast Cancer Res Treat 125:145–156
Untch M, Jackisch C, Schneeweiss A et al (2014) A randomized phase III trial comparing neoadjuvant chemotherapy with weekly nanoparticle-based paclitaxel with solvent-based paclitaxel followed by anthracyline/cyclophosphamide for patients with early breast cancer (GeparSepto); GBG 69. Paper presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; San Antonio, TX. abst S2-07
Isakoff SJ (2010) Triple-negative breast cancer: role of specific chemotherapy agents. Cancer J 16:53–61
Gronwald J, Byrski T, Huzarski T et al (2009) Neoadjuvant therapy with cisplatin in BRCA1-positive breast cancer patients. J Clin Oncol 27(15suppl):502
Byrski T, Huzarski T, Dent R et al (2009) Response to neoadjuvant therapy with cisplatin in BRCA1-positive breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Res Treat 115:359–363
Byrski T, Gronwald J, Huzarski T et al (2010) Pathologic complete response rates in young women with BRCA1-positive breast cancers after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol 28:375–379
Sikov WM, Dizon DS, Strenger R et al (2009) Frequent pathologic complete responses in aggressive stages II to III breast cancers with every-4-week carboplatin and weekly paclitaxel with or without trastuzumab: a Brown University Oncology Group Study. J Clin Oncol 27:4693–4700
Chen XS, Nie XQ, Chen CM et al (2010) Weekly paclitaxel plus carboplatin is an effective nonanthracycline-containing regimen as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. Ann Oncol 21:961–967
Chang HR, Glaspy J, Allison MA, Kass FC, Elashoff R, Chung DU, Gornbein J (2010) Differential response of triple-negative breast cancer to a docetaxel and carboplatin-based neoadjuvant treatment. Cancer 116:4227–4237
Alba E, Chacon JL, Lluch A et al (2011) Chemotherapy (CT) with or without carboplatin as neoadjuvant treatment in patients with basal-like breast cancer: GEICAM 2006–03-A multicenter, randomized phase II study. J Clin Oncol 29(15suppl):1015
von Minckwitz G, Schneeweiss A, Loibl S et al (2014) Neoadjuvant carboplatin in patients with triple-negative and HER2-positive early breast cancer (GeparSixto; GBG 66): a randomised phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol 15:747–756
Sikov WM, Berry DA, Perou CM et al (2015) Impact of the addition of carboplatin and/or bevacizumab to neoadjuvant once-per-week paclitaxel followed by dose-dense doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide on pathologic complete response rates in stage II to III triple-negative breast cancer: CALGB 40603 (Alliance). J Clin Oncol 33:13–21
Schwentner L, Wolters R, Wischnewsky M et al (2011) Triple-negative breast cancer: the effect of guideline-adherent adjuvant treatment on the cumulative survival—a retrospective multicenter cohort study of 3,658 patients. J Clin Oncol 29(27suppl):1063
Joensuu H, Gligorov J (2012) Adjuvant treatments for triple-negative breast cancers. Ann Oncol 23:vi40–vi45
Amir E, Miller N, Geddie W et al (2012) Prospective study evaluating the impact of tissue confirmation of metastatic disease in patients with breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 30:587–592
Perez EA, Patel T, Moreno-Aspitia A (2010) Efficacy of ixabepilone in ER/PR/HER2-negative (triple-negative) breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 121:261–271
Cortes J, O’Shaughnessy J, Loesch D et al (2011) Eribulin monotherapy versus treatment of physician’s choice in patients with metastatic breast cancer (EMBRACE): a phase 3 open-label randomised study. Lancet 377:914–923
Twelves C, Akerele C, Wanders J, Cortes JA on behalf of the Study 305 investigators (2010) Eribulin mesylate (E7389) versus treatment of physician’s choice (TPC) in patients (PTS) with metastatic breast cancer (MBC): subgroup analyses from the EMBRACE study. Ann Oncol 21(Suppl8):2750
Cheang MC, Voduc D, Bajdik C, Leung S, McKinney S, Chia SK, Perou CM, Nielsen TO (2008) Basal-like breast cancer defined by five biomarkers has superior prognostic value than triple-negative phenotype. Clin Cancer Res 14:1368–1376
Schneider BP, Miller KD (2005) Angiogenesis of breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 23:1782–1790
Robert NJ, Diéras V, Glaspy J et al (2011) RIBBON-1: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III trial of chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab for first-line treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 29:1252–1260
Miller K, Wang M, Gralow J et al (2007) Paclitaxel plus bevacizumab versus paclitaxel alone for metastatic breast cancer. N Engl J Med 357:2666–2676
Brufsky A, Valero V, Tiangco B et al (2012) Second-line bevacizumab-containing therapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer: subgroup analysis of the RIBBON-2 trial. Breast Cancer Res Treat 133:1067–1075
Gerber B, Loibl S, Eidtmann H et al (2013) Neoadjuvant bevacizumab and anthracycline–taxane-based chemotherapy in 678 triple-negative primary breast cancers; results from the geparquinto study (GBG 44). Ann Oncol 24:2978–2984
Bear HD, Tang G, Rastogi P et al (2012) Bevacizumab added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. N Engl J Med 366:310–320
Cameron D, Brown J, Dent R et al (2013) Adjuvant bevacizumab-containing therapy in triple-negative breast cancer (BEATRICE): Primary results of a randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol 14:933–942
D’Agostino RB Sr (2011) Changing end points in breast-cancer drug approval–the Avastin story. N Eng J Med 365:e2
Web site. http://clinicaltrials.gov. Accessed 21 July 2014
Farmer H, McCabe N, Lord CJ et al (2005) Targeting the DNA repair defect in BRCA mutant cells as a therapeutic strategy. Nature 434:917–921
O’Shaughnessy J, Osborne C, Pippen JE et al (2011) Iniparib plus chemotherapy in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. N Engl J Med 364:205–214
Gelmon KA, Hirte HW, Robidoux A et al (2010) Can we define tumors that will respond to PARP inhibitors? A phase II correlative study of olaparib in advanced serous ovarian cancer and triple-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 28(15suppl):3002
Rivera E, Lee J, Davies A (2008) Clinical development of ixabepilone and other epothilones in patients with advanced solid tumors. Oncologist 13:1207–1223
Baselga J, Zambetti M, Llombart-Cussac A et al (2009) Phase II genomics study of ixabepilone as neoadjuvant treatment for breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 27:526–534
Carey LA, Rugo HS, Marcom PK et al (2012) TBCRC 001: randomized phase II study of cetuximab in combination with carboplatin in stage IV triple-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 30:2615–2623
Baselga J, Gomez P, Greil R et al (2013) Randomized phase II study of the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody cetuximab with cisplatin versus cisplatin alone in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 31:2586–2592
Carey LA, O’Shaughnessy J, Hoadley K et al (2009) Potential predictive markers of benefit from cetuximab in metastatic breast cancer: an analysis of two randomized phase 2 trials. In: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, San Antonio, TX; AACR Philadelphia, PA: abst 2014
Baselga J, Albanell J, Ruiz A et al (2005) Phase II and tumor pharmacodynamic study of gefitinib in patients with advanced breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 23:5323–5333
Dickler MN, Rugo HS, Eberle CA et al (2008) A phase II trial of erlotinib in combination with bevacizumab in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res 14:7878–7883
Gluz O, Liedtke C, Gottschalk N, Pusztai L, Nitz U, Harbeck N (2009) Triple-negative breast cancer–current status and future directions. Ann Oncol 20:1913–1927
Corkery B, Crown J, Clynes M, O’Donovan N (2009) Epidermal growth factor receptor as a potential therapeutic target in triple-negative breast cancer. Ann Oncol 20:862–867
Finn RS, Dering J, Ginther C, Wilson CA, Glaspy F, Tchekmedyian N, Slamon DJ (2007) Dasatinib, an orally active small molecule inhibitor of both the src and abl kinases, selectively inhibits growth of basal-type/“triple-negative” breast cancer cell lines growing in vitro. Breast Cancer Res Treat 105:319–326
Tryfonopoulos D, Walsh S, Collins DM et al (2011) Src: a potential target for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. Ann Oncol 22:2234–2240
Fornier MN, Morris PG, Abbruzzi A et al (2011) A phase I study of dasatinib and weekly paclitaxel for metastatic breast cancer. Ann Oncol 22:2575–2581
Saal LH, Holm K, Maurer M et al (2005) PIK3CA mutations correlate with hormone receptors, node metastasis, and ERBB2, and are mutually exclusive with PTEN loss in human breast carcinoma. Cancer Res 65:2554–2559
Ellard SL, Clemons M, Gelmon KA et al (2009) Randomized phase II study comparing two schedules of everolimus in patients with recurrent/metastatic breast cancer: NCIC Clinical Trials Group IND.163. J Clin Oncol 27:4536–4541
Cancer Genome Atlas Network, Koboldt DC, Fulton RS, McLellan MD (2012) Comprehensive molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature 490:61–70
Lehmann BD, Bauer JA, Chen X, Sanders ME, Chakravarthy AB, Shyr Y, Pietenpol JA (2011) Identification of human triple-negative breast cancer subtypes and preclinical models for selection of targeted therapies. J Clin Invest 121:2750–2767
Horiuchi D, Kusdra L, Huskey NE et al (2012) MYC pathway activation in triple-negative breast cancer is synthetic lethal with CDK inhibition. J Exp Med 209:679–696
Jeong H, Ryu YJ, An J, Lee Y, Kim A (2012) Epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer correlates with high histological grade and triple-negative phenotype. Histopathology 60:E87–E95
Dutta B, Pusztai L, Qi Y et al (2012) A network-based, integrative study to identify core biological pathways that drive breast cancer clinical subtypes. Br J Cancer 106:1107–1116
Stagg J, Allard B (2013) Immunotherapeutic approaches in triple-negative breast cancer: latest research and clinical prospects. Ther Adv Med Oncol 5:169–181
Hall RE, Aspinall JO, Horsfall DJ, Birrell SN, Bentel JM, Sutherland RL, Tilley WD (1996) Expression of the androgen receptor and an androgen-responsive protein, apolipoprotein D, in human breast cancer. Br J Cancer 74:1175–1180
Kuenen-Boumeester V, Van der Kwast TH, Claassen CC, Look MF, Liem GS, Klijn JG, Henzen-Logmans SC (1996) The clinical significance of androgen receptors in breast cancer and their relation to histological and cell biological parameters. Eur J Cancer 32A:1560–1565
Ogawa Y, Hai E, Matsumoto K et al (2008) Androgen receptor expression in breast cancer: relationship with clinicopathological factors and biomarkers. Int J Clin Oncol 13:431–435
Yu Q, Niu Y, Liu N et al (2011) Expression of androgen receptor in breast cancer and its significance as a prognostic factor. Ann Oncol 22:1288–1294
Peters AA, Buchanan G, Ricciardelli C et al (2009) Androgen receptor inhibits estrogen receptor-alpha activity and is prognostic in breast cancer. Cancer Res 69:6131–6140
Søreide JA, Lea OA, Varhaug JE, Skarstein A, Kvinnsland S (1992) Androgen receptors in operable breast cancer: relation to other steroid hormone receptors, correlations to prognostic factors and predictive value for effect of adjuvant tamoxifen treatment. Eur J Surg Oncol 18:112–118
Bryan RM, Mercer RJ, Bennett RC, Rennie GC, Lie TH, Morgan FJ (1984) Androgen receptors in breast cancer. Cancer 54:2436–2440
Persijn JP, Korsten CB, Engelsman E (1975) Oestrogen and androgen receptors in breast cancer and response to endocrine therapy. Br Med J 4:503
Hankinson SE, Willett WC, Manson JE, Colditz GA, Hunter DJ, Spiegelman D, Barbieri RL, Speizer FE (1998) Plasma sex steroid hormone levels and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. J Natl Cancer Inst 90:1292–1299
Micheli A, Meneghini E, Secreto G et al (2007) Plasma testosterone and prognosis of postmenopausal breast cancer patients. J Clin Oncol 25:2685–2690
Panet-Raymond V, Gottlieb B, Beitel LK, Pinsky L, Trifiro MA (2000) Interactions between androgen and estrogen receptors and the effects on their transactivational properties. Mol Cell Endocrinol 167:139–150
Clarke BL, Khosla S (2009) New selective estrogen and androgen receptor modulators. Curr Opin Rheumatol 21:374–379
Recchione C, Venturelli E, Manzari A, Cavalleri A, Martinetti A, Secreto G (1995) Testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and oestradiol levels in postmenopausal breast cancer tissues. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 52:541–546
Suzuki T, Miki Y, Moriya T et al (2007) 5Alpha-reductase type 1 and aromatase in breast carcinoma as regulators of in situ androgen production. Int J Cancer 120:285–291
Byrne MJ, Gebski V, Forbes J et al (1997) Medroxyprogesterone acetate addition or substitution for tamoxifen in advanced tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer: a phase III randomized trial. Australian-New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group. J Clin Oncol 15:3141–3148
Buchanan G, Birrell SN, Peters AA et al (2005) Decreased androgen receptor levels and receptor function in breast cancer contribute to the failure of response to medroxyprogesterone acetate. Cancer Res 65:8487–8496
Gholami S, Chen CH, Lou E, De Brot M, Fujisawa S, Chen NG, Szalay AA, Fong Y (2012) Vaccinia virus GLV-1h153 is effective in treating and preventing metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Ann Surg 256:437–445
Gluz O, Nitz UA, Harbeck N et al (2008) Triple-negative high-risk breast cancer derives particular benefit from dose intensification of adjuvant chemotherapy: results of WSG AM-01 trial. Ann Oncol 19:861–870
Rodenhuis S, Bontenbal M, van Hoesel QG et al (2006) Efficacy of high-dose alkylating chemotherapy in HER2/neu-negative breast cancer. Ann Oncol 17:588–596
Nieto Y, Shpall EJ (2009) High-dose chemotherapy for high-risk primary and metastatic breast cancer: is another look warranted? Curr Opin Oncol 21:150–157
Berry DA, Ueno NT, Johnson MM et al (2011) High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell support as adjuvant therapy in breast cancer: overview of 15 randomized trials. J Clin Oncol 29:3214–3223
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
We declare that we have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, P., Aggarwal, R. An overview of triple-negative breast cancer. Arch Gynecol Obstet 293, 247–269 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-015-3859-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-015-3859-y