TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER. CURRENT THERAPEUTIC OPTIONS IN THE NEOADJUVANT SETTING

At present, breast cancer (BC) has the highest incidence among the most common forms of cancer in women, almost one million women being diagnosed annually worldwide. However, in recent years BC has registered a low mortality rate mainly in developed, high-income countries. The triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of BC which is characterized by the absence of protein expression of the two hormone receptors-estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PgR) after immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis and the lack of overexpression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) after IHC or in situ fluorescence hybridization technique. More than 170,000 of women are currently diagnosed with TNBC (ER–/PR–/HER2) representing 12-20% of all BC. TNBCs are recognized to have a poor prognosis which translates into a relative low disease-free survival rate for women who receive either neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy as well as a low progression-free survival rate for women who develop distant metastases. Furthermore, biologically, they are much more aggressive than the other types of BC and, owing to their triple “negativity”, a targeted therapy with anti-hormon agents or transtuzumab (anti HER2) cannot be utilized. The aim of this paper is to make a review of the current scientific evidence with regard to the new chemotherapeutic agents used in the neoadjuvant setting as well as the role of surgical treatment in women diagnosed with TNBC.