Accelerating progress in early triple-negative breast cancer: A viewpoint on antibody-drug conjugates, back from St Gallen breast cancer conference 2021

Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) is associated with an aggressive disease course, and limited treatment options. The recent accelerated drug development in the space of mTNBC has been driven by a precision-medicine approach, with the potential to deliver more personalized treatments and result in better outcomes. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have introduced a novel paradigm in the space of mTNBC, leading to the approval of the first targeted agent in this setting. The research and development of ADCs comes in parallel with the identification of tumor-specific targets of pharmacological interest. As a result, ADCs bring the potential for agnostic treatment delivery-across multiple histology types, and theranostically, by coupling tumor-antigen identification and treatment, as a continuum. In this perspective, recent progress in ADCs development for early and mTNBC are outlined, in the trade-off of patient selection, tumor specificity, precise drug delivery, potent payloads safety and quality of life.