Breaking News: New Hope for Treating Triple Negative Breast Cancer Metastasis
Groundbreaking Study at ASCO 2025 Offers New Treatment Options
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains one of the most challenging forms of cancer to treat, especially when it has metastasized. This aggressive cancer, which accounts for around 10 to 15% of breast cancer cases and often affects younger women, has limited treatment options due to the absence of hormonal or HER2 targets. However, a recent study presented at the ASCO 2025 conference may offer new hope for patients with PD-L1 positive tumors.
Why TNBC is So Difficult to Treat
TNBC is notoriously difficult to treat because it lacks the hormonal receptors or HER2 targets that other breast cancers may have. The standard front-line protocol involves a combination of pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, with chemotherapy. While this combination has shown some effectiveness, particularly in PD-L1 positive patients, its overall success is limited and its side effects can be severe.
Trodelvy and Pembrolizumab: A New Treatment Combination
Trodelvy (Sacituzumab Govitecan) is an innovative conjugated antibody that targets the Trop2 protein, which is highly expressed on the surface of TNBC cells. This treatment allows for the direct delivery of a chemotherapeutic agent into cancer cells, thereby minimizing systemic side effects.
During the ASCO 2025 congress, the results of the phase 3 study KEYNOTE-D19 / ASCENT-04 were presented. This study compared two first-line treatments in 443 patients: the standard combination of pembrolizumab and chemotherapy versus the combination of pembrolizumab and Trodelvy. The results were highly promising, with the Trodelvy and pembrolizumab combination reducing the risk of disease progression or death by 35% compared to the standard treatment. Median progression-free survival improved from 7.8 to 11.2 months, and the response rate was higher (59.7% vs. 53.2%) with significantly longer response duration (16.5 months vs. 9.2 months). Additionally, the new treatment was better tolerated, with fewer patients discontinuing due to adverse effects.
Expert Insights and Future Implications
Dr. Sara M. Tolaney, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, noted that these results represent a significant advance for patients with metastatic TNBC, a population with few first-line treatment options. “By combining Sacituzumab Govitecan with pembrolizumab, we observe significant gains in progression-free survival and a promising trend in overall survival,” she said. “These results could support the emergence of a new standard for first-line treatment for this aggressive disease.”
Dr. Jane Lowe Meisel from the Winship Cancer Institute echoed these sentiments, stating that the study demonstrates that the combination of Sacituzumab Govitecan and pembrolizumab offers better disease control and fewer side effects than the current standard of care. “It is likely that this combination will become a new standard for first-line treatment in this indication,” she added.
Other trials are currently evaluating this treatment strategy in early-stage TNBC, HER2-negative metastatic cancer, and HER2-positive cancer after hormone therapy failure. If these trials confirm the results, this approach could become a new reference for several types of breast cancer.
Stay Tuned for More Updates
As the follow-up of the KEYNOTE-D19 trial continues, the medical community awaits more data to redefine treatment standards. For the latest updates and in-depth analysis, stay tuned to archyde.com.
