The most compelling reason I found for joining the clinical trial was learning that triple-negative breast cancer doesn’t always respond well to chemotherapy alone. While cancer treatments have improved dramatically over the last several decades, many cancer types still defy standard treatments, including triple-negative breast cancer. “It turns out that there are plenty of good tumor suppressor genes in some of these really hard-to-treat cancers,” says Haynes. Beyond Haynes’ research, it’s important to address the intersectional struggles she has faced as a Black woman in STEM. Now we know 5 other genes associated with a high risk for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) thanks to a study by former American Cancer Society grant recipient, Fergus J. Couch, PhD. “Even if my protein doesn’t work, maybe I can contribute in some other way, in a surprising way. Five-year survival rates tend to be lower for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) than for other forms of breast cancer. Up to 20 percent of invasive breast cancers are classified as triple negative, which refers to the fact that the cancer is estrogen receptor negative (ER-), progesterone receptor negative (ER-), and HER2/neu negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-).In other words, triple negative breast cancers do not express receptors for estrogen or progesterone and do not overexpress HER2. Thank you to Fiona Rose Mischel for additional research and reporting in this article. Triple-negative breast cancer, which accounts for about 15% to 20% of all breast cancers, has traditionally been treated with chemotherapy, which can cause side effects including hair loss, nausea, fatigue, peripheral neuropathy and low blood counts. About 10-20% of breast cancers — more than one out of every 10 — are found to be triple-negative. TNBC represents 10 to 20 percent of diagnosed breast cancers and is more likely to affect younger people and those with a BRCA1 gene mutation. “This time the chemotherapy and radiation therapy were palliative,” she says. Eeek. “We want to make failure cheap and fast because there are going to be a lot of molecular failures,” says Haynes. 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(The cells test "negative" on … Within six months my treatment was over, and I was told to get on with my life. Biological researchers typically use bacteria to express proteins, but this is an extremely time-consuming process. For doctors and researchers, there is intense interest in finding new medications that can better treat this type of breast cancer. © 2021 MJH Life Sciences and Cure Today. Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer. Erika P. Hamilton, MD (14:37): Yeah. Its more likely to spread beyond your breast, and theres a higher chance it will come back within the first 3 years after treatment. For me, this new development honors their memory. During ASCO's annual meeting this year, I was thrilled to learn that a new drug class is offering promise to patients with triple negative breast cancer. Treatment options for triple-negative breast cancer are limited, as the cancer is unlikely to respond to hormone therapy such as tamoxifen or HER2 therapy such as trastuzumab. You may opt-out by. © 2021 MJH Life Sciences™ and Cure Today. However, in triple-negative breast cancer, all three receptors have been either silenced or mutated, hence the ‘triple-negative’ designation. A diagnosis of DCIS doesn't lower life expectancy in patients over 50, study finds. After close examination, he shrugged his shoulders and said that, most likely, I did. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. A protein called p53 suppresses and … Laughter is one … Haynes’ lab is developing a screening platform to find natural and artificial proteins that bind with and modify specific chromatin. I've lived with the fear that it might return--as we all do. It’s made up of several subtypes. It’s responsible for coiling up the long double helix so that it doesn’t get tangled in the cell nucleus. 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