What is the latest treatment for triple-negative breast cancer 2021?
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women around the globe. Atleast One woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in every 10 minutes. Triple-negative breast cancer is the most aggressive form of cancer and also has very poor diagnosis mainly because there are very few medications in the market available to treat it, compared to other types of breast cancer. There are a number of good hospitals with great oncologists who provide the best treatment for breast cancer in India.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
Following are the signs of breast cancer:
- Irritation or dimpling of the skin
- Lump in the breast area or armpit
- Swelling of the breast area
- Pain in the nipple area
- Nipple discharge other than breast milk
- Redness or flaky breast skin
- Change in the shape and size of the breast
What is triple-negative breast cancer?
According to social media work, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a cancer that tests negative for estrogen and progesterone receptors. Excess HER2 protein meaning that the growth of cancer is not powered by these receptors or HER2 proteins. Hence, TNBC doesn’t respond to hormonal therapy medications or drugs that target HER2 protein receptors.
Triple-negative breast cancer is more likely to spread beyond the breast area to other parts of the body and is more likely to relapse after the treatment.
According to the statistics, about 10-20% of breast cancer are triple-negative and hence it is crucial to find better diagnostic and therapeutic targets for this type of breast cancer in women.
What causes breast cancer?
Breast cancer occurs when there is an abnormal growth of cells in the breast. These cells tend to multiply faster than healthy cells causing lumps and changes in the breast. These cancerous cells tend to spread to other parts of the body as well.
There are three main causes of breast cancer- environmental, lifestyle, and hormonal factors. It is still a question that people with no such factors may also develop breast cancer.
Types of triple-negative breast cancer treatments:
There are various kinds of treatment options available. The treatment option generally includes a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
- Mastectomy:
The surgeon removes the breast and the nearby lymph nodes and also they look for cancer if it has spread to other parts of the body.
- Lumpectomy:
Here, the surgeon will remove the lump from the breast area. The surgeon will also remove nearby lymph nodes to check if the cancer has spread beyond the breast area.
- Radiation:
Lumpectomy surgery is used to kill the remaining cancerous cells followed by radiation therapy.
- Chemotherapy:
Chemotherapy will target the cancerous lumps that have spread to other parts of the body.
All these are the best treatments for breast cancer in India.
The latest treatment for triple-negative breast cancer 2021:
Westminster university in the US has researched that removing small genetic parts from genomes called microRNAs from triple-negative breast cancer patients can reverse its spread. These microRNAs can be chosen as an option to detect early cancer and also used as the latest treatment for triple-negative breast cancer.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term “microRNAs” is an abbreviation for (miRs) which are small genetic materials that play a vital role in signaling cellular and also can have a major effect on how cancer grows and metastasis (spread).
The research has helped to identify that the amount of a major cancer-related microRNA-21 is elevated in triple-negative breast cancer and also linked with metastasis.
The researchers while experimenting used a genome editing method to remove miRs-21 out of the cancerous cells and found that the metastasis feature of these cancerous cells was reversed. Additionally, these gene-edited cells released fewer extracellular vesicles which are small lipid blobs released from the cells and play an important role in metasiss.
The research team also explored that less of the harmful miR-21 was carried inside the vesicles of the gene-edited cells which may play a major role in the spread of cancer as these vesicles carry with them certain vital diseases related to neighbouring cells.
Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive type of cancer. Lead researcher Dr. Pinal Uysal-Onganer of Westminster university said that this is an important study that contributes to a better understanding of the roles of miRs-21 in these aggressive cancers. Additionally, they are also trying to clarify the relationship between miR-21 and cancer drug resistance which is another factor that limits the cancer cure.
Latest TNBC medicines:
To treat TNBC Several medications that have been approved are listed below.
- Keytruda (pembrolizumab): Used in the combination of chemotherapy for the treatment of people on TNBC.
- Tecentriq (atezolizumab): Used to treat people with TNBC.
- Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy): For the treatment of patients with TNBC. They have received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease.
- Talzenna (talazoparib): This used in the treatment of patients with TNBC
- Lynparza (olaparib): Used to treat metastatic HER2-negative TNBC patients with an inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation who have previously been treated with chemotherapy.
The survival rate of triple-negative breast cancer:
TNBC has a 77% 5 year chance of living. Each patient’s chance of living depends on the stage of cancer and the grade of the tumor. However, the chances are less as compared to other forms of breast cancer.