7 New Breakthroughs for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) can be a tough diagnosis. It often grows faster than other breast cancers, and has fewer treatment options. But there are reasons to be hopeful. Scientists have started to better understand how TNBC grows, which could one day lead to more treatments for this difficult disease. Here are seven of those recent advances.
1. A TNBC vaccine shows promise
A preventive vaccine for TNBC caused an immune response in 74% of women in a phase I trial, and now moves to a phase II trial. The vaccine would be used for people with a high risk of developing TNBC.
The work builds on vaccine research that trains the immune system to recognize differences between TNBC cells and normal cells, so it knows what to attack and when. In this case, that difference is a milk protein, normally produced during lactation, that shows up in TNBC tumors but not in other types of breast cancer tumors. The vaccine trains the immune system to recognize this protein and attack it if it appears again in tumors.
Final Results From Early Trials on a Vaccine to Prevent TNBC
With guest Justin Johnson, PhD
Dec 11, 2025Research
2. Immune cells may predict how early-stage TNBC responds to treatment
Some people may have immune systems that are more primed to fight early-stage TNBC tumors than others, which could mean they may be able to receive less-intense treatment, according to new research.
The body uses the immune system to recognize and fight cancer, with some immune cells doing this by getting inside tumors. Roberto Leon-Ferre, MD a breast cancer oncologist at Mayo Clinic, found that when people with early-stage TNBC had higher levels of these immune cells, they responded better to treatment. They also had a lower risk of cancer coming back.
“It may be possible in the future, if additional research confirms this, that a subset of these people may actually be able to avoid chemotherapy altogether, or at least receive a less-intensive chemotherapy,” Leon-Ferre said in a Breastcancer.org webinar. But, he cautions, more research is needed before doctors can make treatment decisions based on immune cells.
3. A possible new treatment for early-stage TNBC
Right now, chemotherapy plus the immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda is the standard treatment for people with early-stage TNBC. A new study shows that people with early-stage TNBC may benefit from receiving a different immune checkpoint inhibitor called camrelizumab. The drug is currently approved for liver cancer in the United States.
The study found that women who received camrelizumab plus chemotherapy before surgery had a better treatment response than women who received chemotherapy alone. If approved for breast cancer, the drug would expand treatment options for early-stage TNBC.
4. New first-line treatments approved for metastatic TNBC
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two ADCs as first-line treatments for people with metastatic TNBC: Trodelvy (chemical name: sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) and Datroway (chemical name: datopotamab deruxtecan), commonly called Dato-DXd. People with metastatic TNBC typically get chemotherapy and immunotherapy, depending on their tumor type. If their tumor came back or didn’t respond to other treatments, then they would receive an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). With these new options, people may be able to skip chemotherapy in their first round of treatment.
Both Trodelvy and Datroway are approved for people with metastatic TNBC who aren’t eligible for Keytruda. Trodelvy can also be used in combination with Keytruda for people with PD-L1-positive metastatic TNBC. Both drugs outperformed chemotherapy in clinical trials.
5. Some TNBC tumors may come back by switching their biology
One reason that TNBC is so difficult to treat is that it doesn’t have hormone receptors so it can’t be treated with hormonal therapy. It’s also more likely to come back (or recur) than other types of breast cancers. But researchers recently discovered that when TNBC tumors come back, 30% of them are positive for hormone receptors.
This suggests that some TNBC tumors may have low levels of hormone receptors when first diagnosed. If low levels of hormone receptors are in fact present, then hormonal therapies like tamoxifen could be added to treatment to reduce the risk of recurrence and prevent this switch in the future.
TNBC Can Change Hormone Receptor Status If It Comes Back
With guest Lisa Newman, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCO
Sep 23, 2025Diagnosis
6. TNBC may grow faster than other breast cancer tumors with the help of fat cells
A study in cells and mice has revealed a possible strategy for how TNBC survives: Tumors hijack energy from nearby fat cells. With this new knowledge, researchers want to develop a drug that blocks cancer cells’ access to this fuel, in hopes that it could starve out TNBC.
Andrei Goga, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at the University of California San Francisco, studied how TNBC cancer cells interact with fat cells in the breast. He found that the cancer cells suck energy from fat cells using tiny tunnels, and the energy helps the tumors grow. When these tunnels were blocked off, the tumors stopped growing. More research is needed to see if TNBC tumor cells interact with fat in the same way in people. If they do, researchers might be able to slow tumor growth by targeting these tunnels.
7. Black women might be more likely to get TNBC because of a gene
Black women are more likely to get TNBC than white women, but the reasons why aren’t well understood. A new study may hold a clue. It found that some Black women have a faulty gene that overproduces proteins that can turn healthy cells into cancer.
The gene, called TRIM37, is a breast oncogene, meaning it causes cancer. It produces TRIM37 proteins that help tumors form, spread, and resist chemotherapy. When this gene is overactive, it produces lots of TRIM37 proteins. Anyone with TNBC could have an overactive TRIM37 gene, but research shows Black women may be at higher risk. Black women are more likely to have a small mutation in the gene that makes it produce more of the troublesome protein.
The researchers hope that one day treatments could target these proteins, offering a new option for people with the disease. TRIM37 could also be used to monitor TNBC risk. Black women with a family history of TNBC could be screened for a faulty TRIM37 gene. If it’s present, then they may be at an even higher risk of developing TNBC, similar to how BRCA mutations increase a person’s risk of breast cancer.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and the TRIM37 Protein
With guest Sanchita Bhatnagar, PhD
Apr 4, 2025Research