Triple-negative breast cancer: new perspectives for targeted therapies

Abstract

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, encompassing a large number of entities showing different morphological features and having clinical behaviors. It has became apparent that this diversity may be justified by distinct patterns of genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptomic aberrations. The identification of gene-expression microarray-based characteristics has led to the identification of at least five breast cancer subgroups: luminal A, luminal B, normal breast-like, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, and basal-like. Triple-negative breast cancer is a complex disease diagnosed by immunohistochemistry, and it is characterized by malignant cells not expressing estrogen receptors or progesterone receptors at all, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. Along with this knowledge, recent data show that triple-negative breast cancer has specific molecular features that could be possible targets for new biological targeted drugs. The aim of this article is to explore the use of new drugs in this particular setting, which is still associated with poor prognosis and high risk of distant recurrence and death.

Selective Inhibition of SIN3 Corepressor with Avermectins as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

“…TNBC patients have a shorter median survival time after relapse (~18 month) and more readily develop chemoresistant disease (2). In contrast to advances in the treatment of ER-positive and HER2-positive tumors, TNBC remains a disease with poor prognosis and limited treatment options (3). Molecular profiling suggests that while ~75% of TNBC tumors exhibit a basal-like phenotype (4) and commonly harbor BRCA1 and TP53 mutations (5) the subtype can nevertheless also be considered a heterogeneous entity (6).…”

Sensitization of rhTRAIL-resistant Triple-negative Breast Carcinoma Through Silibinin Co-Treatment

“…Triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are the most severe form of breast cancer carcinoma (1). TNBCs do not express estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2), so traditional hormone-targeted therapies for breast cancer cannot be applied.…”

“…TNBCs do not express estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2), so traditional hormone-targeted therapies for breast cancer cannot be applied. Developing and examining therapeutics against TNBCs is more problematic due to the absence of targeted molecular-oriented therapies resulting in worse clinical outcomes; hence, there is scientific interest in discovering and applying non-hormone related targeted therapies (1).…”

Nodal expression in triple-negative breast cancer: Cellular effects of its inhibition following doxorubicin treatment

“…1 Hence, treatment approaches for this aggressive disease remain challenging and few established targeted therapies for TNBC have been developed. [2][3][4] A distinct complication of TNBC relates to patients who relapse with metastatic disease following treatment. These patients face shorter survival times when compared to other breast cancer subtypes and therapy responses at this stage are poor.…”