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What 'triple-negative' means, what the standard treatment is and why, what the tests decide, and what is coming next.
A breast cancer that lacks the three receptors (oestrogen, progesterone, HER2) that other breast cancers can be treated through. It was the hardest subtype for decades; since 2020 immunotherapy and ADCs have changed that.
Why here Start here: the whole picture, standard of care by stage, and history.
Tumours with a little HER2 (IHC 1+ or 2+ without amplification), or a trace (ultralow), which older HER2 drugs ignored but Enhertu can attack.
Why here Why the HER2 score of 0, 1+, or 2+ matters even in 'HER2-negative' cancer.
A test of the DNA you were born with, to find inherited risk genes such as BRCA or Lynch syndrome.
Why here Why every TNBC patient is offered inherited-gene testing.
DNA repair genes. Inheriting a broken copy raises breast and ovarian cancer risk, but tumours that lose them become uniquely vulnerable to PARP inhibitors and platinum.
Why here What a BRCA result changes.
The trial that added immunotherapy to pre-surgery chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer and, uniquely, improved survival.
Why here The trial behind the pre-surgery chemo-immunotherapy you may be offered.
No invasive cancer left in the breast and lymph nodes when the surgeon removes the tissue after pre-surgery treatment.
Why here What 'complete response' at surgery means for prognosis.
Showed that a year of a PARP inhibitor after standard treatment improves survival in women with inherited BRCA mutations.
Why here Why some patients take a PARP inhibitor for a year afterwards.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are antibodies against CTLA-4, PD-1 or PD-L1 that release the brakes on T cells so they attack the cancer. They are approved in more than 20 tumour types and produce lasting, sometimes curative responses that chemotherapy rarely does, but most patients do not respond and autoimmune side effects are the cost.
Why here How immunotherapy works and its side effects.
A PD-L1 score that counts stained tumour cells and immune cells together.
Why here The PD-L1 score that decides immunotherapy eligibility in metastatic disease.
The first trial to show an overall survival benefit for a first-line ADC in triple-negative breast cancer.
Why here The 2026 first-line ADC trial with a survival benefit.
Immune cells that have got inside the tumour. More of them means better outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer.
Why here The immune-cell score that may let very small tumours skip chemotherapy.
How triple-negative breast cancer went from the subtype with no targeted therapy to one with immunotherapy, PARP inhibitors, three ADCs, and a positive bispecific ADC in six years.
Why here Where the field has come from and where it is going.