Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Triple-negative breast cancer is invasive breast cancer that is:
estrogen receptor-negative
progesterone receptor-negative
HER2-negative
This means the cancer cells don’t have receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone and don’t make too much of the HER2 protein. So triple-negative breast cancers don't respond to hormonal therapy medicines or the medicines that target the HER2 protein.
About 10% to 15% of all breast cancers are triple-negative. Triple-negative breast cancer is more common in:
women younger than 40
Black women
women who have a BRCA1 mutation
Triple-negative breast cancer is usually more aggressive, harder to treat, and more likely to come back (recur) than cancers that are hormone receptor-positive or HER2-positive. The symptoms, staging, diagnosis, and survivorship care for triple-negative breast cancer are the same as other invasive ductal carcinomas.
Hope After a Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Oct. 19, 2016Treatments for triple-negative breast cancer may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.
You and your doctor work together to determine the type of surgery that’s right for you, based on the characteristics of the cancer, your family and medical history, and your preferences.
Doctors almost always recommend radiation therapy after lumpectomy and may recommend it after mastectomy if the cancer is large or if there is cancer in the lymph nodes.
You may receive chemotherapy before or after surgery, depending on the characteristics of the breast cancer and your medical history.
Immunotherapy medicines use the power of your body’s immune system to attack cancer cells.
— Last updated on July 27, 2022, 9:09 PM
