<p>Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Breast Cancer: Emerging New Data</p>

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer affecting women in the United States. Triple-negative breast cancer remains the most aggressive molecular subtype secondary to a lack of therapeutic targets. The search for a target has led us to investigate immunotherapeutic agents. Immunotherapy has recently demonstrated significant breakthroughs in various types of cancers that are refractory to traditional therapies including melanoma and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Breast cancer however remains one of the tumors that was initially least investigated because of being considered to have a low immunogenic potential and a low mutational load. Over the past few years, antiPD1/PDL1 drugs have started to make progress in the triple-negative subtype with more promising outcomes. In this report, we review the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer and specifically shed light on advances in immunotherapy and newly approved drugs in this challenging disease.

Emerging nanomedicines for effective breast cancer immunotherapy

“…Breast cancer has been considered as a low-immunogenic malignancy, immunotherapy therefore provides a promising treatment option [34][35][36][37]. Immune response and distribution of immune cells in breast tumor tissues are quantitatively and qualitatively different based on breast tumor subtypes.…”

Liquid Biopsies to Evaluate Immunogenicity of Gynecological/Breast Tumors: On the Way to Blood-Based Biomarkers for Immunotherapies

“…cluster of differentiation 244 IL-4 interleukin 4 BC breast cancer ILT2 leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor subfamily BRCA1/2 breast cancer type 1/2 susceptibility protein B member 1 CAMLs cancer associated macrophage-like cells JAK1/2 janus kinase 1/2 CD127 interleukin-7 receptor subunit alpha LAG3 lymphocyte-activation gene 3 CD14 cluster of differentiation trigger an immune response [25]. The identification of biomarkers is dependent on understanding the complex interaction between tumor and immune cells, and combinational therapies might be proposed to prime cold, nonimmunogenic tumors to increased immunogenicity, as thought to be possible by chemotherapy inducing antigen release [26] and by PARP inhibitors inducing higher mutational burden and activating PD-L1 expression [27,28].…”

“…The assumed poor immunogenicity of BC is thought to cause these low response rates. Differentiation of cold (non-immunogenic) and hot (immunogenic) tumors highlights the need for biomarkers to select for predispositions to trigger an immune response [25]. The identification of biomarkers is dependent on understanding the complex interaction between tumor and immune cells, and combinational therapies might be proposed to prime cold, non-immunogenic tumors to increased immunogenicity, as thought to be possible by chemotherapy inducing antigen release [26] and by PARP inhibitors inducing higher mutational burden and activating PD-L1 expression [27, 28].…”

“…Binding of PD-L1 to PD-1 (also known as PDCD1, CD279, SLEB2, hPD-1, hPD-l, and hSLE1 and expressed on T cells) inhibits T-cell activation and thus, leads to impaired antitumoral immune response. Anti-PD-L1 therapy demonstrated good response rates in patients with high expression of PD-L1 assessed by IHC on tumor tissues, but some patients with low PD-L1 expression also indicated a benefit from ICI [25]. This discrepancy was explained by the dynamic nature of immune modulation and cannot be adequately represented by a static snapshot.…”

A Risk Prediction Model for Breast Cancer Based on Immune Genes Related to Early Growth Response Proteins Family

“…Patients with certain subtypes of breast cancer would benefit from immunotherapy ( Naik et al, 2019 ). However, the full potential benefit of immunotherapy has yet to be proved in breast cancer ( Mina et al, 2019 ). Novel targets and mechanisms require further discovery.…”