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Review
. 2017 Mar;12(1):8-14.
doi: 10.1159/000455820. Epub 2017 Feb 20.

Biological Subtypes of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Michael Hubalek  1 , Theresa Czech  2 , Hannes Müller  2
Affiliations
Review

Biological Subtypes of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Michael Hubalek et al. Breast Care (Basel). 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are defined as tumors that are negative for estrogen, progesterone and HER-2 receptor. At a percentage of 10-20% TNBCs represent a minority in all breast cancers. However, because of the poor prognosis this particular subtype, triple negative disease accounts for a disproportionate number of metastatic cases and breast cancer deaths. Identification of its subtypes is essential for understanding the biological characteristics and clinical behavior of TNBC, as well as for developing personalized treatments. This review will focus on the great progress that has been made in the past few years on identifying new targets in TNBC subtypes and a variety of new treatment options that are on the verge of routine clinical application.

Keywords: Biological activity; Breast cancer; Subtypes; Triple-negative.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Microarray analysis and immunohistochemistry show 75% concordance for basal-like and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), respectively. Approximately 25% of TNBCs are not basal-like on gene expression array. Similarly, there are basal-like breast cancers that are not triple-negative, which also represent approximately 25% of cases. Therefore, in clinical trials looking at basal-like biology and using the triple-negative phenotype to identify patients, the potential exists for misclassification.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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