Targeted therapies use medicines to identify and attack specific targets found on or inside cancer cells. The goal of targeted therapies is to slow down and/or kill cancer cells by targeting proteins and processes that they need to survive.
If you have a BRCA mutation, your doctor may include a poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor in your TNBC treatment plan. Cancer cells with BRCA mutations rely on a protein called PARP to repair small defects in their DNA. A PARP inhibitor stops that repair from happening, killing the cancer cells.
The PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) is approved for use after surgery in certain patients with early-stage, high-risk breast cancer. Olaparib is typically given for one year. Talazoparib (Talzenna) is another PARP inhibitor approved for patients who have metastatic or locally advanced HER2-negative breast cancer and who inherited the BRCA1/2 mutation.
Another type of targeted therapy is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), which helps target and deliver chemotherapy directly into cancer cells.
Both currently approved ADCs target a protein called Trop-2, which researchers have found in a high proportion of TNBC patients.
Sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy) is an ADC approved for treating adults who have metastatic TNBC. Trodelvy is approved as any line of treatment, meaning that someone can take Trodelvy even if they’ve already tried other medications. If it is used as a first line treatment (someone has not received other systemic therapies for metastatic TNBC yet), it must be combined with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) (see our ‘What to Expect – Immunotherapy’ section for more explanation on Keytruda).
Datopotamab deruxtecan (Datroway) is an ADC approved as a first line treatment for those with inoperable (the cancer cannot be removed with surgery) or metastatic TNBC who are PD-1/PD-L1 negative (see our ‘What to Expect – Immunotherapy’ section for more explanation on PD-1/PD-L1). ‘First line treatment’ means that this medicine is currently only approved for people who have not already received systemic treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
Compared to standard chemotherapy, both Trodelvy and Datroway improved survival for patients with metastatic TNBC enrolled in a clinical trial. Both are currently being investigated for early stage breast cancer.
Ask your doctor about adding antibody-drug conjugates to your chemotherapy treatment plan.
A note: Treating triple negative breast cancer is incredibly important. It also comes with some side effects. We know that reading a list of potential side effects can be scary and stressful—just because something is on this list doesn’t mean you will definitely experience it. But if we’re being honest, you will likely face something on this list. We’ve faced them ourselves. And we want you to be prepared to tackle it equipped with resources and support. We’re here for you.
You can learn more about recognizing, managing, and minimizing these side effects in our resources section.
