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Review
. 2020 Oct;15(5):450-469.
doi: 10.1159/000511788. Epub 2020 Oct 13.

Clinical Data on Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer

Julia Caroline Radosa  1 , Lisa Stotz  1 , Carolin Müller  1 , Askin Canguel Kaya  1 , Erich-Franz Solomayer  1 , Marc Philipp Radosa  2
Affiliations
Review

Clinical Data on Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer

Julia Caroline Radosa et al. Breast Care (Basel). 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer has traditionally been considered to have a low immunogenic potential compared to other tumor entities.

Summary: The most extensively studied immunotherapeutic agents for breast cancer to date are immune checkpoint inhibitors, with the results of the IMpassion130 trial leading to the approval of atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel for first-line treatment of programmed cell death ligand 1-positive, metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer, and studies in earlier stages have yielded promising results. Other immunotherapeutic options being assessed in phases 2 and 3 trials include vaccine-based therapies and treatment with anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (H-directed immune-linked antibodies) and substances evaluated in early clinical trials as cellular therapies (adoptive cell therapy and chimeric antigen receptor T cells).

Key messages: Immunotherapy is an emerging modality for the treatment of breast cancer, as evidenced by the plethora of preclinical and clinical concepts and ongoing trials. Early studies established the role of immunotherapeutic agents in the metastatic setting. Ongoing studies will expand our knowledge about the timing of administration, best partners for combination therapy, and predictive biomarkers to guide immunotherapy for breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast cancer; CAR T-cell therapy; Immune checkpoint inhibition; Immunotherapy; Tumor vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following conflicts of interests. JCR has received travel grants from Medac GmbH (Wedel, Germany), Gedeon Richter (Budapest, Hungary), Celgene (Summit, NJ, USA), Daiichi Sankyo (Tokyo, Japan), and Pfizer (New York City, NY, USA) and has been an honorary speaker for Pfizer. L.S. has received travel grants from Medac GmbH (Wedel, Germany) and Celgene (Summit, USA) outside the scope of this work. E.-F.S. is receiving: grants from the University of Saarland, Storz, and Erbe; personal fees and other compensation from Roche (Basel, Switzerland), Pfizer (New York City, NY, USA), Celgene (Summit USA), Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA), and Astra Zeneca (Cambridge, UK); and other fees from Esai (Tokyo, Japan), Ethicon (Somerville, NJ, USA), Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ, USA), Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Tesaro (Waltham, MA, USA), Teva (Petach Tikwa, Israel), Medac GmbH (Wedel, Germany), MSD (Kenilworth, NJ, USA), Vifor (Sankt Gallen, Switzerland), Gedeon Richter (Budapest, Hungary), Takeda (Tokyo, Japan), and AGE (Buchholz, Germany).

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