Advances in Targeted Therapies for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Abstract

While the outcomes for patients diagnosed with hormone receptor positive (HR+) and/or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancers have continued to improve with the development of targeted therapies, the same cannot be said yet for those affected with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Currently, the mainstay of treatment for the 10-15% of patients diagnosed with TNBC remains cytotoxic chemotherapy, but it is hoped that through an enhanced characterization of TNBC biology, this disease will be molecularly delineated into subgroups with targetable oncogenic drivers. This review will focus on recent therapeutic innovations for TNBC, including poly-ADP-ribosyl polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway inhibitors, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors.