Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for 10% to 20% of all breast cancers. Many people have misconceptions about triple negative breast cancer and have some doubts, “Is triple negative breast cancer hopeless”, “Can triple negative breast cancer be cured”, “Can triple negative breast cancer live beyond 5 years? “. So, can triple negative breast cancer be cured in the end? Of course it can! And the results are not too bad.
This article is here to help you get a clear understanding of this particular type of breast cancer.
The “triple negative” is just 3 indicators that are negative
The term “triple negative” means that the breast cancer is negative for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2), which is a medical staging of breast cancer.
Why is triple-negative breast cancer difficult to treat?
Compared to other types of breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer has an earlier age of onset, occurring mostly in young premenopausal women. Also, most triple-negative breast cancers are poorly graded histologically, more aggressive, and progress relatively quickly.
In addition, endocrine therapy, which has relatively few adverse effects, is an option for ER- and PR-positive breast cancers, and targeted therapy is available for HER-2-positive breast cancers, but both treatments are not effective for triple-negative breast cancers that are negative for ER, PR, and HER-2, because they lack targets where these two treatments can work.
Triple-negative breast cancer has two fewer treatments for breast cancer, endocrine therapy and targeted therapy, and this affects treatment outcomes to some extent.
Triple-negative breast cancer can also be treated with better results
While endocrine therapy and targeted anti-HER-2 therapy are not available, there are a variety of treatments available for triple-negative breast cancer, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. In addition, the outcome of breast cancer treatment depends not only on ER, PR and HER-2 indicators, but also on the stage of the tumor. Many early-stage triple-negative breast cancers are also curable, and even if they are not curable, they can be effectively prolonged by these treatments.
In recent years, there have been more advances in research on triple-negative breast cancer. On the one hand, triple-negative breast cancer has been further subdivided into many types, with several specific types of triple-negative breast cancer, such as adenoid cystic adenocarcinoma, having better outcomes than the average breast cancer, and the different types can be treated with targeted treatment strategies that can help improve outcomes. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that targeted therapies such as poly(adenosine diphosphate ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and immunotherapies such as PD-L1 inhibitors are also more effective in triple-negative breast cancer, and although it will take some time before they are gradually used in the clinic, they still offer hope that new results and breakthroughs in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer are expected.
Current data show that the 5-year survival rate for triple-negative breast cancer is about 77%, slightly lower than the 90% survival rate for all types of breast cancer, but not worlds apart. Like other types of breast cancer, once triple-negative breast cancer survives beyond 5 years, the likelihood of recurrence is very low, so there is still a good chance of winning the battle against triple-negative breast cancer.