Tailoring adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for patients with triple negative breast cancer

Abstract

Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains the systemic therapy of choice for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a poor-prognosis subtype of breast cancer. Growing data focusing on TNBC provides an opportunity to assess if we can tailor adjuvant chemotherapy based on patient and tumor characteristics. The standard of care for moderate-to-high risk TNBC remains a sequential anthracycline-taxane combination, with the potential for shorter and less toxic regimens in stage I disease. Platinums are promising in the neoadjuvant and metastatic settings but we await long-term outcome data before incorporation into standard regimens in the adjuvant setting. Specific subgroups within TNBC, such as BRCA mutation carriers, require special attention, and the role of platinums in these patients warrants further consideration. There is hope that in the future, further subdividing TNBC by gene expression profile, mutation, immune infiltrate, and others will reveal novel susceptibilities.

Keywords: Adjuvant; BRCA; Breast cancer; Chemotherapy; Precision cancer medicine; Triple-negative.