Report from ESMO Breast 2025
The UK Charity for Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) attended the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Breast Cancer congress in Munich last week (14th - 17th May, 2025).
This annual meeting brings together more than 3,000 breast cancer doctors, researchers, patient groups and pharmaceutical companies from all over the world to share and discuss the latest developments in drugs and treatments.
Our poster ‘Needs of People with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC): The Patients Voice’ included content from four face-to-face roundtable discussions with those affected by TNBC, in partnership with the RCNi. The poster, produced by Dr Hira Yousef and Professor Chris Twelves from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust & University of Leeds, was presented by the Charity’s Chair, Robin Woolcock. It attracted significant interest and discussion, resonating with people from many countries with similar experiences.
The congress had more content related to TNBC than ever before. While no single breakthrough in TNBC was announced, encouraging results were presented from several key trials.
There was considerable emphasis on immunotherapies and agreement that immunotherapy reduces the number of people with TNBC relapsing with metastatic disease.
There was also a significant amount of TNBC research from the laboratory, trials already underway or planned, and ‘real world’ patients’ experience now that immunotherapy is 1st line treatment for many with TNBC . Nevertheless, immunotherapy is still a “work in progress” and much remains to be done to understand how biomarkers can help identify who benefits most and why.
Another key point of agreement was that patients should be involved in decision-making processes around their care, in consultation with their health care team.
