Bay Biosciences provides high-quality, biopsy tissue samples. FFPE tissue blocks with matching fresh, frozen sera (serum), plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) bio-fluids from patients diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Overview
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a cancer that tests negative for estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), and excess HER2 protein.
These results mean the growth of the cancer is not fueled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone, or by the HER2 protein. So, triple-negative breast cancer does not respond to hormonal therapy medicines or medicines that target HER2 protein receptors.
Certain cancer cells have receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone, as well as an overexpression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) gene. If HER2 genes are overexpressed, the cells make too much of the protein HER2.
If the cells have hormone receptors, the hormones can fuel the growth of your cancer cells. Not all breast cancer cells have these receptors, and not all cancers overexpress the HER2 gene.
In case the cancer isn’t sensitive to these hormones and doesn’t have an increased amount of HER2, it’s called triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
According to the American cancer society (ACS) about 10-15% of all breast cancers are triple-negative breast cancers.
For researchers, there is intense interest in discovering new medications that can treat TNBC breast cancer.
Studies are investigating whether certain medications can interfere with the processes that cause triple-negative breast cancer to grow.
TNBC tend to be more common in women younger than age 40 or who have a BRCA1 mutation.
Triple-negative breast cancer differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that they grow and spread faster, have limited treatment options, and a worse prognosis (outcome).
It is also is unlikely to respond to medicines that target the HER2 protein, such as Enhertu, Herceptin (trastuzumab), Kadcyla (T-DMA), Nerlynx (neratinib), Perjeta (pertuzumab), or Tykerb (lapatinib).
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Features
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- Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered to be more aggressive and have a poorer prognosis than other types of breast cancer, mainly because there are fewer targeted medicines that treat triple-negative breast cancer.
- Studies have shown that triple-negative breast cancer is more likely to spread (metastasize) beyond the breast into other distant organs and more likely to recur (come back) after treatment.
- TNBC tends to be higher grade than other types of breast cancers. The higher the grade, the less the cancer cells resemble normal, healthy breast cells in their appearance and growth patterns. On a scale of 1 to 3, triple-negative breast cancer often is grade 3.
- Usually Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) usually is a cell type called Basal-like which means that the cells resemble the basal cells that line the breast ducts.
- Basal-like cancers tend to be more aggressive, higher grade cancers, just like triple-negative breast cancers.
- Most but not all basal-like breast cancers are triple negative, and most but not all triple-negative breast cancers are basal-like.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Signs & Symptoms
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have the same sign and symptoms as other common types of breast cancer. The most common symptom of breast cancer is a new lump or mass.
A painless, hard mass that has irregular edges is more likely to be cancer, but breast cancers can be tender, soft, or round. They can even be painful.
For this reason, it’s important to have any new breast mass, lump, or breast change checked by an experienced health care professional.
Other Symptoms of Breast Cancer include:
- Swelling of all or part of a breast (even if no lump is felt)
- Skin dimpling (sometimes looking like an orange peel)
- Breast or nipple pain
- Nipple retraction (turning inward)
- Breast skin or nipple that is red, dry, flaking or thickened
- Discharge from the nipple (other than breast milk)
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Sometimes a breast cancer can spread to lymph nodes under the arm or around the collar bone and cause a lump or swelling
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Risk Factors
According to the American cancer society (ACS) TNBC’s tend to be more common in women younger than age 40, who are African American, or who have a BRCA1 mutation.
Triple-negative breast cancer differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that they grow and spread faster, have limited treatment options, and a worse prognosis (outcome).
Following are the other risk factors for developing TNBC’s in addition to being a woman of a younger age:
- Ancestry: Breast cancers diagnosed in African American and Hispanic women are more likely to be TNBC than in other groups. Reasons for this are unknown.
- Scientists are exploring the possibility that maybe genetics are involved, including a person’s birthplace and associated ancestry, as well as social and lower income levels and inequities in healthcare.
- Genetics: Patients born with a mutation of the BRCA gene are more likely to develop TNBC.
- About seventy percent of all breast cancers diagnosed in patients with the BRCA mutation are TNBC.
- Data and research shows that patients with the BRCA1 mutation are more likely to develop TNBC than those with the BRCA2 mutation.
- Researchers are trying to understand the link between the BRCA mutations and TNBC.
- Obesity: Obesity is one of the biggest predictors of all breast cancers.
- Pre-menopause: Women who have not yet gone through menopause are at higher risk of getting TNBC.
- Research Exact causes of why premenopausal women are at higher risk for TNBC is unknown.
Stages of Breast Cancer
The breast cancer stages are based on the size and location of the tumor, as well as whether the cancer has spread beyond the part of the breast in which it originated.
To determine the stage of breast cancer, pathologists use a scale of stage 0 to stage 4.
Stage 0 breast cancers are isolated in one part of the breast, such as a duct or lobule, and show no sign of spreading into other tissue.
Stage 1 is typically localized, although further local growth or spread may cause the cancer to move into stage 2.
In stage 3, the cancer may be larger and has affected the lymph system. Stage 4 cancer has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes, and into other organs and tissues of the body.
In addition to stages, breast cancers are given grades based on the size, shape, and activity of the cells in the tumor.
A higher-grade cancer means a greater percentage of cells look and act abnormal, or they no longer resemble normal, healthy cells.
On a scale of 1 to 3, with 3 being the most serious, TNBC is mostly labeled as grade 3.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Treatment
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has fewer treatment options than other types of invasive breast cancer.
This is because the cancer cells do not have the estrogen or progesterone receptors or enough of the human epidermal growth factor receptor2 (HER2) protein to make hormone therapy or targeted drugs work.
If the cancer has not spread to distant sites, surgery is an option. Chemotherapy might be given first to shrink a large tumor followed by surgery. It might also be given after surgery to reduce the chances of the cancer coming back.
Radiation might also be an option depending on certain features of the tumor. Because hormone therapy and HER2 drugs are not choices for women with triple negative breast cancer, chemotherapy is often used.
In cases where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body (stage IV) chemotherapy and other treatments that can be considered include PARP inhibitors, platinum chemotherapy, or immunotherapy.
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
Research has shown that when triple-negative breast cancer is treated with chemotherapy before surgery, which is called neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and there is a pathologic complete response, disease-free survival and overall survival are better.
One way for doctors to judge the effectiveness of neoadjuvant treatment is to look at the tissue removed during surgery to see if any active cancer cells are present. If no active cancer cells are present, this is known as a “pathologic complete response” or pCR.
In TNBC patients disease-free survival is how long a person lives without the cancer recurring. Overall survival is how long a person lives whether or not the cancer recurs.
PARP Inhibitors
PARP inhibitors, such as Lynparza (Olaparib) and Talzenna (Talazoparib), have been approved to treat advanced-stage HER2-negative breast cancer in patients with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
The poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) enzyme fixes DNA damage in both healthy and cancer cells.
Research has shown that medicines that interfere or inhibit the PARP enzyme make it even harder for cancer cells with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation to fix DNA damage.
This makes it harder for the cancer cells to survive. In other words, a PARP inhibitor makes some cancer cells less likely to survive their DNA damage.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy medicines use the power of your body’s immune system to attack cancer cells.
The immunotherapy medicine Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) is used to treat triple-negative breast cancer.
Keytruda is used in combination with chemotherapy to treat un-resectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative, PD-L1-positive breast cancer.
It is also is used in combination with chemotherapy before surgery, and then on its own after surgery to treat early-stage triple-negative breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence.
TNBC is also more likely than some other types of breast cancer to return after it’s been treated, especially in the first few years after treatment.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) and Diet
According to research most of cancer deaths in the United States relate to the following conditions:
- Alcohol consumption
- Being overweight and obese
- Eating unhealthy and poor diet
- Lack of exercise and physical inactivity
- Smoking
Cancer cases may be prevented by following recommendations on nutrition and physical activity. Following are some of the recommended diets for healthy lifestyle:
- Food that are rich in fiber
- Nutrient-dense foods
- Legumes
- Fruit and vegetables (grapes)
- Whole grains
- Vegetable fats
- Nuts
- Olive oil
- Tea
- Chocolate
- Maintaining a healthy body weight
Following are foods and actions are recommend that you limit or avoid:
- Alcohol consumption
- Artificially sweetened drinks high in fructose
- Animal Fats
- Beverages which are high in sugar
- Eggs
- Smoking
- Eating red meat
- Eating processed foods
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Outlook and Prognosis
The outlook for breast cancer is often described in terms of relative survival rates.
Relative survival rates are an estimate of the percentage of people who will survive their cancer for a given period of time after diagnosis.
Survival among people with cancer is compared to survival among people of the same age and race who have not been diagnosed with cancer.
Five-year relative survival rates tend to be lower for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) than for other forms of breast cancer.
According to the American cancer society (ACS), the overall 5-year relative survival rate for TNBC is seventy seven percent.
However, an individual’s outlook depends on many factors, including the stage of the cancer and the grade of the tumor.
Doctors are able to give you a more precise outlook based on:
- Overall health condition of the patient
- The age of the patient
- The stage of the TNBC
- Effectiveness of the chemotherapy and other drugs
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens and human bio-fluid collections.
Samples available are cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma cancer PBMC and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own bio-repository, human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.
Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.
All our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed samples associated patient’s clinical data.
This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers and genetic information.
Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.
Including fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, FFPE’s, tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC’s.
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the researchers specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.
Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.
Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:
- Peripheral whole-blood,
- Amniotic fluid
- Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL)
- Sputum
- Pleural effusion
- Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
- Serum (sera)
- Plasma
- Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC’s)
- Saliva
- Buffy coat
- Urine
- Stool samples
- Aqueous humor
- Vitreous humor
- Kidney stones (renal calculi)
- Other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.
We can also procure most human bio-specimens and can-do special collections and requests of human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB approved clinical protocols and procedures.
In addition to the standard processing protocols Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols, you can buy donor specific sample collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.
Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors, volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.
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