Shorter, safer protocol can effectively treat triple-negative breast cancer

Medical Xpress / UT Southwestern Medical Center / Journal of Clinical Oncology ^ | Jan. 30, 2025 | Alice Y. Ho et al

[ConservativeMind]

A far shorter, simpler, and less toxic treatment protocol for patients with triple-negative breast cancer produced outcomes similar to the current standard of care, a clinical trial shows.

About 10%–15% of breast cancers are triple negative.

In a global phase three clinical trial called KEYNOTE-522 that Dr. McArthur co-authored and published last year, 1,174 patients at 181 sites with triple-negative breast cancer received the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab in combination with four chemotherapy drugs before their tumors were surgically removed. They then continued receiving immunotherapy for the next year. In that study, 64% of patients had a pathologic complete response—meaning that no evidence of cancer remained—an unprecedented outcome that made this protocol the new standard of care.

However, Dr. McArthur said, almost all patients who followed this protocol experienced toxicity, causing symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, anemia, and neuropathy.

Hoping to counteract these issues, Dr. McArthur and colleagues devised a new protocol in which 66 breast cancer patients received two doses of pembrolizumab immunotherapy along with radiation before chemotherapy chosen by their doctors, and then followed by surgery.

Fifty-four of these study subjects had triple-negative breast cancer, and 12 had hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. The median age of patients was 53 years old. The researchers followed these volunteers for an average of 32 months.

Results showed that 59% of patients with triple-negative breast cancer treated on this protocol experienced a total pathologic complete response, a rate close to that in the KEYNOTE-522 trial. However, only 41% of patients in this regimen had serious toxicity, which was about half of that seen in KEYNOTE-522 patients. The significantly shorter treatment timeline also meant that those who responded to the new protocol were finished with cancer therapy far sooner, eliminating a significant number of doctor visits.

[ConservativeMind]

You can get the same results with less toxicity, when treating triple-negative breast cancer, by adding some radiation to the immunotherapy, before chemo, then surgery.

[ConservativeMind]

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[combat_boots]

My hero of all my life died of this just a few months ago.

I have no words.

[MayflowerMadam]

I’ve lost two dear friends to breast cancer, one in 2000, and one in 2018. Both went through hell.

Have had it myself. Am taking ivermectin as prophylactic 2X/week, as articles posted by ConsertiveMind here in the past have indicated positive results with breast cancer.

[combat_boots]

So very sorry