Abstract ES9-3: Triple negative breast cancer: Current and future directions in metastatic patients

Abstract

Abstract Chemotherapy is the primary established systemic treatment for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) with both early and metastatic disease. The poor prognosis of patients with TNBC have fostered a major effort to discover actionable molecular targets and other approaches to treat these patients. Massively parallel sequencing and other 'omics' technologies have revealed an unexpected level of heterogeneity of TNBCs and have led to the identification of potentially actionable molecular features in some TNBCs, such as germline BRCA1/2 mutations or 'BRCAness', as well as a subgroup with a high degree of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes that also correlates with a lower risk of disease relapse and a higher likelihood of benefit from chemotherapy. Proof-of-principle studies with immune-checkpoint inhibitors in advanced-stage TNBC have yielded promising results, indicating the potential benefit of immunotherapy for patients with TNBC. Additional data from trials with antibody drug conjugates have yielded promising results. We discuss the most relevant molecular findings in TNBC from the past decade and the most promising therapeutic opportunities. Citation Format: Chang J. Triple negative breast cancer: Current and future directions in metastatic patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr ES9-3.