Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), is defined as a type of tumor lacking the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). The ER, PR and HER2 are usually the molecular therapeutic targets for breast cancers, but they are ineffective for TNBC because of their negative expressions, so chemotherapy is currently the main treatment strategy in TNBC. However, drug resistance remains a major impediment to TNBC chemotherapeutic treatment. Recently, the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) has been found to regulate the phosphorylation of some substrates involved in the relevant target of TNBC, such as cell cycle control, DNA damage responses, epidermal growth factor receptor, immune modulation and cell death resistance, which may be the effective therapeutic strategies or influence drug sensitivity to TNBCs. Furthermore, PP2A has also been found that could induce ER re-expression in ER-negative breast cancer cells, and which suggests PP2A could promote the sensitivity of tamoxifen to TNBCs as a resistance reversal agent. In this review, we will summarize the potential therapeutic value of PP2A as the main node in developing targeting agents, disrupting resistance or restoring drug sensitivity in TNBC.
Keywords: PP2A; TNBC; breast cancer; molecular targets; resistance reversal.