A new therapy could reduce the risk of disease progression or death in triple-negative breast cancer.

by August 22, 2025

A team of researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (United States) has found that a new combination therapy, based on adding the drug everolimus to standard chemotherapy with carboplatin, has reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 52 percent in patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer.

During the randomized phase 2 clinical trial, published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, it was found that patients who received both drugs lived longer without their cancer worsening than those who received chemotherapy alone.

However, the study authors emphasized that phase 3 studies will be needed to confirm the efficacy of combining carboplatin with everolimus in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer.

"Triple-negative breast cancer has limited treatment options and is often resistant to standard therapies. Our findings suggest that the combination of carboplatin and everolimus may offer a new option for patients and should be evaluated in larger clinical trials to confirm its efficacy and safety," said senior author Amy Tiersten, MD, professor of medicine (hematology and medical oncology) at the Icahn School of Medicine.

The use of everolimus, which was provided by Novartis in this study, has been justified by its properties in blocking the "growth switch" that is activated in patients whose tumor lacks the PTEN gene, which is why cancer growth accelerates.

During the study, which did not observe any unexpected safety issues, patients who had already received up to three prior treatments were enrolled, with some patients randomly assigned to receive carboplatin alone, while others received carboplatin plus everolimus.

"This combination could represent a promising new treatment option for advanced triple-negative breast cancer if validated in phase 3 trials," said study first author Rima Patel, MD, assistant professor of medicine (hematology and medical oncology) at the Icahn School of Medicine.

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