Women diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer are more likely to be premenopausal than women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer. They are also more likely to be African American; among U.S. breast cancer patients, approximately 11% of Caucasians, 17% of Latinas, and 25% of African Americans have triple negative breast cancer. One study found that 48% of BRCA1 mutation carriers had triple negative breast cancer compared to only 12% of noncarriers.
Treatments that reduce the production of estrogen or block its effects in the body are not useful for this type of breast cancer. Women with metabolic syndrome are more likely to have triple negative breast cancer upon diagnosis than women without it.
Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Paxil and Prozac are suspected of increasing risk of (ER-/PR-) breast cancer in older women. Use of birth control pills has been found to be associated with risk of triple negative breast cancer in younger women.
Triple negative disease is often responsive to chemotherapy
Triple negative breast cancer is more often responsive to chemotherapy than hormone receptor positive breast cancer. On the other hand, long-term hormonal treatments (tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors), which are used for ER+ subtypes, are not effective for triple negative breast cancer since estrogen is not the main driver of growth. Therefore, it is important for those with triple negative breast cancer to have surgery (and obtain clean surgical margins) and complete the chemotherapy that will in all likelihood be prescribed. The initial treatment period provides the best opportunity for a long or permanent remission. Please see our article on triple negative prognosis.
Additional comments
There are specific foods that are associated with lower risk of this type of breast cancer and some that are associated with higher risk. Please see our article on what triple negative breast cancer patients and survivors should eat.