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VIDEO: ‘Doors wide open’ to explore immune agents in breast cancer
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Douglas Yee, MD, director of the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota and a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member, discusses the advances in immune-based therapies in breast cancer.
Providing background on the progress in context of melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer, Yee describes how mounting evidence has steered practice beyond “thinking about the vulnerabilities of the tumor itself” and highlights research in the neoadjuvant treatment space.
“The idea that we can enhance immune system function to increase the cell death initiated by our chemotherapies and other targeted therapies is going to be the way of the future,” he says.
He underscores the challenge of identifying immunologic antigens in breast cancer relative to those cancers driven by specific carcinogens but expresses hope that data on checkpoint inhibitors targeting the PD-L1/PD-1 pathway can translate.
Yee notes research interest is strong in basal-like or triple-negative breast cancers due to the high mutational load, as well as HER-2–positive types, already being treated with the monoclonal antibodies trastuzumab (Herceptin, Genentech) and pertuzumab (Perjeta, Genentech).
He also points to trends toward exploring cytokines that enhance immune effector responses such as interleukin-15, as well as toll-like receptor agonists that activate natural killer cells.
“The doors are wide open now to begin to test the immune-based therapies in breast cancer.”