Information about breast cancer

Seven questions about triple-negative breast cancer

A breast cancer diagnosis instills fear, and triple-negative breast cancer even more so. What makes this type of breast cancer so different?

1. What is triple-negative breast cancer?

Triple-negative breast cancer or TNBC (triple-negative breast cancer) is a subtype of breast cancer with its own characteristics. Triple-negative breast cancer lacks three receptors that are present in the other types. Receptors are locks on the outside of a cell and with which the cell interacts with its environment. TNBC lacks three locks or receptors: estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and HER2 ("human epidermal growth factor receptor 2").

2. Why is TNBC more difficult to treat?

All types of breast cancer except triple-negative, carry receptors for hormones on their cell surface. This allows them to be treated with hormone therapy or HER2 inhibitors. Because these receptors are missing in TNBC, there are fewer treatment options.

3. Why do some breast cancer patients have TNBC and others do not?

We don't know. Some factors are known to increase the risk of TNBC: being young (not yet menopausal), having black skin color and being a carrier of an inherited breast cancer gene.

4. How is TNBC diagnosed?

Either one feels a lump in the breast or notices some other alarm sign for breast cancer, or the tumor is found in a screening mammogram. To know if it is TNBC, a biopsy must always be taken (piece of tissue from the suspected lesion) and this is examined in a lab for the presence of receptors. Only then can one tell if the cancer is a TNBC.

5. How is TNBC treated?

Treatment depends on the stage at which TNBC is discovered. It usually consists of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Sometimes they give immunotherapy, targeted therapy or a combination drug. The latter is specific to TNBC with metastases.

6. What are the survival rates of TNBC?

Survival rates depend on the stage at which the cancer is discovered. If TNBC is detected and treated at an early stage, you can be cured. If the cancer has already spread, healing is no longer possible, but you can survive for several years with specific medication.

7. Is there any research being done on TNBC?

Absolutely. TNBC may be the least common type of breast cancer, but it affects a lot of women and often in the prime of their lives. Several pharmaceutical laboratories are specifically targeting TNBC, which has already led to important drugs that we also have available in Belgium.

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Breast Cancer
Triple-negative breast cancer
TNBC

Triple-negative breast cancer, an outlier

Breast cancer is not a single disease, but a collective term for several malignant conditions of the breast tissue. One of the less common but most aggressive forms is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This form occurs in about 15% of women with breast cancer and 5% of men, and remarkably often affects younger patients.
Breast Cancer
Awareness
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Pink Ribbon : "Far too little attention is paid to the group of patients with the most severe diagnoses" 

Breast cancer is diagnosed more than 11,000 times a year in Belgium, 100 times more often in women than in men. Thanks to the spectacular progress in breast cancer detection and treatment, there is a lot of good news to tell: more than 9 out of 10 women with non-proliferating breast cancer survive at least 5 years after diagnosis. And 8 in 10 breast cancers, moreover, will never metastasize. But that's not the whole story! In Belgium, between 2,300 and 2,500 women die annually from breast cancer, because 2 out of 10 breast cancers do metastasize sooner or later. As a result, breast cancer remains the leading cause of death among women affected by cancer.
Breast Cancer
Awareness
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Metastases... what now?

Malignant cells can invade other tissues. In this way, cancer cells can break away from the original tumor and be carried along with the blood or lymph. There they can settle in other places in the body and continue to divide. Thus, they form a new tumor somewhere else in the body.

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