Triple negative breast cancer patients who have also have BRCA mutations have a better prognosis.

Triple negative breast cancer tends to occur in younger women and is more common in African American women. These cancers lack the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2). Triple negative cancer is harder to treat because the drugs targeted at ER and HER2 are unlikely to help.

Current research on women with this cancer revealed that these cancers are more likely than other breast cancers to also have a mutation in the BRCA genes. Patients with the additional mutation were found to do BETTER than those without the mutation. This surprising finding may lead to changes in the way these cancers are diagnosed and treated.