Biomolecular Factors Represented by Bcl-2, p53, and Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Predict Response for Adjuvant Anthracycline Chemotherapy in Patients with Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Cancer Manag Res. 2020 Nov 20:12:11965-11971. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S274104. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Treatment of triple-negative breast cancer is challenging. Standard adjuvant tretment is considered to be the cobination of anthracycline and taxanes although the role of anthracyclines administered preoperatively remains controversial. Actually, some studies recommended taxane-only regimens. We reviewed literatures to examine whether tissue biomarkers available in an ordinary laboratory setting (eg, haematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemistry) may predict response to adjuvant anthracyclines in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Our review showed that Bcl-2, p53, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) expression may become independent predictors for triple-negative breast cancer. This finding was based on data from retrospective studies, and, thus, randomized controlled study is needed to confirm the present results.

Keywords: Bcl-2; TILs; anthracyclines; biological tumour markers; p53; predictive; survival; triple-negative breast cancer.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The authors did not receive a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.