Triple-negative breast cancer gets its name because it’s lacking all three receptors typically found on breast cancer cells — namely estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors. In other types of breast cancer, these receptors help fuel the growth of the breast cancer.
Immunotherapy is a class of drugs that stimulate the body’s own immune system to differentiate cancer cells from normal, healthy cells, allowing it to initiate an immune response to kill the cancer cells. There are different types of immunotherapy, but the one that has been approved for triple-negative breast cancer is a checkpoint inhibitor.
Amy Tiersten, MD, is a Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She sees patients at the Dubin Breast Center.
References
American Cancer Society. (2022). Study supports immunotherapy for treating triple-negative breast cancer.
American Cancer Society. (2019). How immunotherapy is used to treat cancer.
Anders, C.K., et al. (2023). Epidemiology, risk factors and the clinical approach to ER/PR negative, HER2-negative (triple-negative) breast cancer. UpToDate.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). What is triple-negative breast cancer?
National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. (2024). Triple negative breast cancer.
National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Atezolizumab.
Susan G. Komen Foundation. (2023). Triple negative breast cancer.
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