# TNT (Triple Negative Trial)

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/tnt/  
OnCo record `tnt` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The UK phase 3 trial that showed carboplatin is not better than docetaxel for triple-negative breast cancer as a whole, but is for the germline BRCA1/2 subgroup, and that gave the NHS its evidence for platinum in BRCA carriers.

## Summary

TNT randomised women with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced triple-negative or BRCA1/2-associated breast cancer to carboplatin or docetaxel, crossing over at progression. Reported in Nature Medicine in 2018 with Andrew Tutt as first author, it found no advantage for carboplatin in the unselected triple-negative population but a doubling of response for germline BRCA1/2 carriers, and no benefit from BRCAness signatures in predicting platinum response. It was run by the Cancer Research UK funded Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit at the ICR.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: mixed
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: TNT trial; NCT00532727
- Tags: uk; breast; platinum
- Registry id: NCT00532727
- Phase: 3
- Setting: Metastatic or recurrent locally advanced triple-negative or BRCA1/2 breast cancer: carboplatin versus docetaxel, with crossover at progression
- Sponsor: The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR-CTSU), funded by Cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer Now
- Result: No superiority of carboplatin over docetaxel in unselected triple-negative disease; higher response to carboplatin in the germline BRCA1/2 subgroup (Nature Medicine 2018).

## Notes

- Treatment reading (Nature Medicine 2018): 376 patients with unselected advanced triple-negative breast cancer randomised 1 to 1 to carboplatin or docetaxel; objective response 31.4 versus 34.0 percent (p 0.66) overall, but 68 versus 33 percent in germline BRCA carriers (interaction p 0.01), with no such interaction for BRCA1 methylation, low BRCA1 mRNA or a high Myriad HRD score. It is the trial behind the practice of offering a platinum first to germline BRCA carriers with metastatic triple-negative disease, and behind the conclusion that HRD assays do not select for platinum in this setting.

## Sources

- Nature Medicine 2018 (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0009-7
- Be Part of Research record: https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/trial-details/trial-detail?trialId=NCT00532727
- Tutt et al., Nature Medicine 2018: carboplatin in BRCA1/2-mutated and triple-negative breast cancer BRCAness subgroups, the TNT trial: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0009-7

## Connected records

- cancers: [Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-metastatic/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- technologies: [Cytotoxic chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/cytotoxic-chemotherapy/), [Platinum agents](https://onco.cc/technologies/platinum/)
- targets: [BRCA1 / BRCA2 (HRD)](https://onco.cc/targets/brca/)
- drugs: [Carboplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/carboplatin/), [Docetaxel](https://onco.cc/drugs/docetaxel/)
- institutions: [Breast Cancer Now](https://onco.cc/institutions/breast-cancer-now/), [The Institute of Cancer Research](https://onco.cc/institutions/icr-london/), [The Royal Marsden](https://onco.cc/institutions/royal-marsden/)
- terms: [Germline BRCA mutation (gBRCA)](https://onco.cc/terms/gbrca-mutation/), [Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)](https://onco.cc/terms/hrd/)
- trials: [BROCADE3](https://onco.cc/trials/brocade3/), [OlympiAD](https://onco.cc/trials/olympiad/)
- people: [Andrew Tutt](https://onco.cc/people/andrew-tutt/), [Jean Abraham](https://onco.cc/people/jean-abraham/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/tnt.json