Episode 321: Personalizing treatment for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

It is Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day – an annual opportunity to bring more awareness to this aggressive type of breast cancer that is difficult to treat because it lacks an estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptor. It primarily affects younger women and Black women and can spread quickly and be deadly if left untreated for too long. Treatment for TNBC used to include the toughest forms of chemotherapy, with debilitating side effects – but we’ve come a long way in how we treat patients with Triple Negative Breast Cancer so their outcomes are better. Today, we are speaking with Dr. Heather McArthur of UT Southwestern. She is a former Susan G. Komen grantee, Professor and the Komen Distinguished Chair in Clinical Breast Cancer Research. Dr. McArthur has been working on a Phase 3 clinical trial called KEYNOTE-522, which is testing whether a specific immunotherapy drug improves overall survival for people with high-risk early Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Dr. McArthur, along with her colleagues, are trying to determine if all people with this type of breast cancer truly need the drug, and if not, who would most benefit from taking it.