Immunotherapy for breast cancer

Abstract

The treatment of breast cancer is comprehensive, involving all available modalities. Due to advances in therapeutic options, the prognosis has been improved in many patients. Recently, immunotherapy has been one of the major advances in the treatment options for tumour diseases. Checkpoint inhibitors have been employed in an ever-increasing group of solid tumour diseases, and their use is associated, for some diagnoses in particular, with a substantial improvement in treatment outcomes and patient prognosis. Currently, immunotherapy is used predominantly in treating malignant melanoma, renal carcinoma, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and bladder cancer. In treating breast cancer, immunotherapy has not yet earned its place; however, results of clinical trials have been available, currently even for phase III trials, suggesting good efficacy of immunotherapy, particularly in HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC).