Carboplatin drug to treat Breast Cancer

Key highlights of the study-

• Dr Sudeep Gupta, Professor of Medical Oncology at Tata Memorial Centre, presented, as a podium presentation, the results of the landmark ‘TMC Study – Platinum in TNBC’ at the ongoing San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which is the largest and most important breast cancer conference in the world.
• The study was a randomized controlled trial which enrolled women with stage II-III triple negative breast cancer from 2010 to 2020 who were divided into two groups, both of whom received chemotherapy to downstage the disease prior to surgery. 
• The results were hailed by oncologists worldwide as immediately practice defining. 
• A commonly available and inexpensive treatment like carboplatin will now be routinely offered as part of pre-operative chemotherapy regimen to women with TNBC which is the most aggressive type of breast cancer. 
• Given that TNBC constitutes about 30% of breast cancer in India and about 45% of breast cancer in women younger than 50 years, the implications of this result are very important.
• Until the results of this study there was no conclusive evidence that this drug should be routinely used as part of the treatment of this disease.

What is triple-negative breast cancer(TNBC )?

• Triple-negative breast cancer is a kind of breast cancer that does not have any of the receptors that are commonly found in breast cancer.
• The term triple-negative breast cancer refers to the fact that the cancer cells don’t have estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER or PR) and also don’t make any or too much of the protein called HER2. (The cells test “negative” on all 3 tests.) 
• TNBC differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that it tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options, and tends to have a worse prognosis (outcome).
• Breast cancer is the commonest cancer affecting women not only in India but globally.