Adjuvant systemic treatment for individual patients with triple negative breast cancer

Abstract

Chemotherapy is the only evidence based adjuvant systemic treatment option in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Despite emerging results for targeted biological therapies for this subpopulation, lack of robust results does not currently support their use beyond the confines of a clinical trial. Conventional systemic chemotherapy remains the standard of care and is curative in a minority of patients. There is no defined standard chemotherapy and there is currently no robust, prospective, randomized data to advise different use of specific chemotherapy agents in TNBC as compared to non-TNBC. Data suggest high sensitivity to chemotherapy, however it is yet to be determined whether this increased sensitivity is agent/regimen specific or whether it reflects general chemosensitivity. This review will focus on systemic chemotherapy in early TNBC, particularly anthracyclines and platinums, and potential predictive tools to guide chemotherapy use.