Dr. Ko on Unmet Needs in PD-L1–Negative TNBC

Heidi Ko, DO, assistant professor of Medicine, medical oncologist, Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, discusses unmet needs in patients with PD-L1–negative triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Chemotherapy remains the standard-of-care frontline therapy for patients with PD-L1–negative TNBC, and there have not been many data collected from clinical trials regarding this patient population, Ko says. Future studies examining the use of immunotherapy in combination with antibody-drug conjugates or other targeted agents as a first-line therapy could produce other potential treatment options for these patients, Ko explains.

Notably, ongoing studies are examining the frontline use of a PARP inhibitor plus immunotherapy in patients with TNBC harboring BRCA mutations, and these studies include patients with PD-L1–positive and –negative disease, Ko concludes.