Exploring Biomarkers and Treatment Efficacy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Biomarkers are any measurement in the body that can indicate disease, infection, or effects of the environment. These indicators are commonly used to reveal disease, but they can also be used to support ​​personalized cancer therapy. “In recent years, there has been an increased focus on personalized cancer therapy. One important aspect is the identification of key biomarkers that support a given treatment plan.” Multiple biomarkers have been identified in breast cancers as helpful tools to guide targeted therapies, including the expression of HER2 and estrogen and progesterone receptors. In triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a number of distinct biomarkers have given rise to new targeted therapies, such as EGFR antibodies, AKT inhibitors, and PARP inhibitors. In a well-read paper from Immunomedics, Inc. (recently acquired by Gilead Sciences, Inc.), researchers analyzed sacituzumab govitecan (SG; Trodelvy™) in TNBC. The team authored a research paper that was published by Oncotarget in 2020, and entitled, “Predictive biomarkers for sacituzumab govitecan efficacy in Trop-2-expressing triple-negative breast cancer.” To date, this paper has scored an Altmetric Attention score of 48. “Here we examined the potential role of biomarkers in predicting the efficacy of SG.” Sacituzumab govitecan is an antibody-drug conjugate that targets human trophoblast cell-surface antigen-2 (Trop-2)ーwhich is a glycoprotein that is commonly overexpressed in many solid tumor types. “Trop-2 is a 46 KDa transmembrane glycoprotein that is overexpressed on many solid tumor types and is correlated with an overall poor prognosis in patients, making it an attractive target for therapy [7, 9].” The researchers examined a highly invasive and aggressive TNBC cell line (MDA-MB-231), which is not responsive to SG, and compared their findings to TNBC cell lines that are responsive to SG. Their goal was to determine how Trop-2 expression and the homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway (through Rad51 expression) play roles in protecting the MDA-MB-231 cell line from SG mediated DNA damage. Trop-2 expression in transfected MDA-MB-231 and tumor xenografts were assessed, in vitro and in vivo Rad51 expression and DNA damagewere assessed via western blot, and statistical analysis was carried out for data from in vivo therapy studies. “Trop-2 expression levels as a positive, primary biomarker and HRR proficiency as a secondary, negative biomarker were assessed in vitro and in vivo.” Full blog: https://www.impactjournals.com/journals/blog/oncotarget/biomarker-predicts-treatment-efficacy-in-triple-negative-breast-cancer/ Press release - https://www.oncotarget.com/news/pr/predictive-biomarkers-in-trop-2-expressing-triple-negative-breast-cancer/ Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.27766 DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27766 Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27766/text/ Correspondence to - Thomas M. Cardillo - tcardillo@immunomedics.com Keywords - sacituzumab govitecan, Trop-2, biomarker, RAD51, triple-negative breast cancer About Oncotarget Oncotarget is a bi-weekly, peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology. To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com or connect with: SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/oncotarget Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/oncotarget YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/OncotargetYouTube/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC please visit https://www.ImpactJournals.com or connect with @ImpactJrnls Media Contact MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM 18009220957