Dr. O'Shaughnessy on Precision Medicine in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD, co-chair, breast cancer research, chair breast cancer at Baylor University Medical Center, discusses precision medicine in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

For TNBC, there is a group of patients who really benefit in the metastatic setting from the use of cisplatin or carboplatin, says O'Shaughnessy. A specific phenotype of those patients—particularly those who recur in other locations, such as the lung or lymph nodes—have a very high Ki-67 and tend to benefit tremendously from platinum-based therapy.

Some types of TNBC are a bit more indolent, explains O'Shaughnessy. About 20% of these more slow-growing cancers have the androgen receptor, which is an important detail for oncologists to keep in mind, especially when it comes to clinical trial participation.

There are a number of emerging, promising therapies and therapeutic hypotheses that are currently being investigated, and significant progress in this space is expected over the next 5 years, says O'Shaughnessy.