Prolonged clinical benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy in a patient with metastatic triple negative breast cancer

Triple negative breast cancer is a recently defined subgroup of tumors which do not express receptors for estrogen or progesterone and which do not show any overexpression of HER2 receptors. Tumors with these histopathologic features have an unfavorable prognosis and at present there is no standard chemotherapy regimen available. However, experimental studies and very recently some clinical data showed a benefit form platinum-based chemotherapy. We treated a 52-year-old caucasian female with metastatic triple negative breast cancer. She suffered from extensive liver disease resistant to taxane treatment and yttrium radiotherapy. Cisplatin/ifosfamide (12 cycles) induced regression of the fiver metastasis from over 30 cm to 6 cm as revealed by CT scan. Dose-limiting toxicity was impairment of renal function and pancytopenia. The patient has now been stable for over ten months on a metronomic regimen of oral cyclophosphamide. This case report adds to recent evidence suggesting good clinic benefits of platinum-based regimens in early and advanced triple negative breast cancers.