Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

Current perspectives on genotype classification and individualized drug targeting in triple-negative breast cancer

Xiao-tian Ma¹, Shou-hua Rong¹, Yu-chao Zhang², Li-ting Jia¹

¹Clinical Laboratory; ²Reproductive Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.

For correspondence:- Li-ting Jia Email: kfyxgcxq21367@163.com

Accepted: 28 January 2018 Published: 28 February 2018

Citation: Ma X, Rong S, Zhang Y, Jia L. Current perspectives on genotype classification and individualized drug targeting in triple-negative breast cancer. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(2):359-364 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i2.23

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a special subset of breast cancer, refers to negative expressions of estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR) and human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2). It is associated with extreme local recurrence and distant metastasis with highly invasive character. With advances in genomics, the bases of molecular classification of TNBC now include the heterogeneity of its expression at the molecular level and clinical pathology, apart from classical immunohistochemistry. Every subtype of TNBC has different individualized target drugs, which include epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, poly-AD-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, anthracycline or paclitaxel, immunotherapy and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibitor. Combinations of target drugs are also used. Thus, there are no widely recognized standards of genotype classification and individualized drug targeting in TNBC. In this review, relevant studies and latest developments on TNBC are presented.

Keywords: Triple-negative breast cancer, Genotype classification, Individualized drug targeting, Breast cancer