Systemic treatment strategies for triple-negative breast cancer

Core Tip

Core tip: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease entity with different biological characteristics and clinical behavior. There are no treatment guidelines for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). TNBCs are sensitive to taxanes and anthracyclins but there are high rates of local and systemic relapses. Recently there has been great interest in platinum agents, either alone or in combination with poly adenosine diphosphate polymerase 1 inhibitors. Combinations of ixabepilone and capecitabine have shown improved response rates (RRs). Other useful drugs are antiangiogenic agents, tyrosine kinase and epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors with variable RRs but no survival benefit. In this review, we discuss various systemic treatment strategies available for TNBC and the benefit from each of them.