March is Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time to shine a light on one of the most aggressive and complex forms of breast cancer. But awareness is only the beginning. Because for the patients and families facing triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), this is not just a month on the calendar. It’s a reality defined by uncertainty, urgency, and the need for better options.
TNBC accounts for about 15% of all breast cancer diagnoses and disproportionately affects Black and Latina women as well as younger women. Unlike other subtypes, it does not have the three receptors—estrogen, progesterone, or HER2—that many of today’s most effective treatments are designed to target. That means fewer treatment options, fewer targeted therapies, and often, more aggressive disease. According to the most recent SEER data, the five-year survival rate for metastatic TNBC is just 14.9%, compared to 99% for localized breast cancer caught early. It’s also more likely to grow quickly, spread earlier, and return after treatment, making it one of the most difficult breast cancers to treat.
TNBC also does not affect all women equally. 1 in 5 Black women with breast cancer are diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer — higher than any other racial or ethnic group. And research from the University of Chicago, funded by Lynn Sage, published in JAMA Network Open found that Black patients with metastatic TNBC were 37% less likely to receive immunotherapy than white patients — even after accounting for socioeconomic differences. Critically, when Black patients did receive immunotherapy, their outcomes were equivalent to white patients, making access — not biology — the defining barrier.
But this is exactly where progress begins. Because when faced with the hardest challenges, research doesn’t stand still—it pushes forward.
Turning Complexity Into Possibility
At Lynn Sage, we are committed to advancing bold, innovative research that takes on cancers like TNBC from every angle, supporting scientists who are asking new questions and pursuing breakthroughs.
Researchers like Dr. Lamiaa El-Shennawy, Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, are studying how tumors communicate within the body through microscopic particles called extracellular vesicles. These nanoscale vesicles facilitate intercellular communication by transporting proteins, nucleic acids, and other biologically active substances, and they play a dual role in tumor development — at times helping cancer evade the immune system, and at others carrying signals that could activate it. While these vesicles can help cancer grow and spread, her work explores how they can be redirected and used to activate the immune system in a more precise and personalized way to fight TNBC. Emerging research has shown that engineered extracellular vesicles can deliver therapeutic agents with high specificity and minimal toxicity — a promising frontier for TNBC, where traditional treatments have historically offered limited options.
Dr. Amanda Marzo, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine at Rush University Medical Center, is tackling another critical challenge: why some TNBC tumors resist even the most promising immunotherapies. TNBC is characterized by an immunologically “cold” microenvironment — meaning low immunogenicity and a suppressive immune landscape that reduces the effectiveness of conventional immunotherapies. By identifying the biological signals behind that resistance, her research is paving the way for combination treatments that could help the immune system better recognize and destroy cancer cells, offering new hope for therapies that work when others fall short.
And Dr. Bin Zhang , Johanna Dobe Professor of Cancer Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is rethinking the role of the immune system itself. His work focuses on neutrophils—cells that, under certain conditions, can actually support tumor growth. By “reprogramming” these cells, his research aims to stop them from helping cancer thrive and instead make treatments like immunotherapy more effective. Ongoing research into mechanisms of immune interactions — including single-cell sequencing, epigenomic profiling, and spatial transcriptomics — holds the potential to revolutionize TNBC treatment and enable further therapeutic personalization. The work of Dr. Zhang and researchers like him is at the leading edge of that frontier.
Each of these approaches is different. But together, they represent something powerful: a multi-front effort to outsmart one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.
Moving Closer to More Tomorrows
TNBC may be one of the most challenging breast cancers we face today, but it is also one of the most urgent areas of opportunity. A 2024 study reported that over the last four decades, there has been a 58% reduction in breast cancer mortality due to more effective therapies and screening. Promisingly, patients with TNBC also saw a decrease in mortality during this period. With every study funded, every idea explored, and every researcher supported, we move closer to changing what a TNBC diagnosis means—for patients, families, and the future of breast cancer care. It’s about progress, possibility, and ensuring that more women—no matter their diagnosis—have more tomorrows.
What Your Support Makes Possible
Progress against TNBC doesn’t come from one breakthrough alone.
It comes from sustained investment in ideas that challenge what we know and expand what’s possible.
It comes from supporting early-career researchers with the vision to pursue new approaches. From funding studies that may lead to entirely new treatment pathways. From believing that even the most difficult cancers can—and must—be better understood.
Your investment is already at work. Lynn Sage helped fund a landmark study published in JAMA Network Open examining racial disparities in TNBC immunotherapy access across more than 10,000 patients—research that could directly inform strategies to ensure equitable access to immunotherapy and help mitigate racial and ethnic disparities in TNBC outcomes.
Because behind every research study is a patient waiting for better answers. Behind every discovery is the potential for more time, more options, more hope. And that progress is only possible because of you.