Breast Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy: Current Status and Future Perspectives.
Cancer immunology has gained renewed interest in the past few years due to emerging findings on mechanisms involved in tumoral immune evasion. Indisputably, immune edition is currently considered a critical hallmark of cancer. Basic research has revealed new targets which can be modulated in the clinical setting with new compounds and strategies. As recent evidence confirms, breast cancer (BC) is a complex and heterogeneous disease in which host immune responses play a substantial role. T-infiltrating lymphocytes measurement is suggested as a powerful new tool necessary to predict early BC evolution, especially in HER2-positive and triple negative subtypes. However, T-infiltrating lymphocytes, genomic platforms, and many other biomarkers in tissue and peripheral blood (e.g., regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells) are not the only factors being evaluated regarding their potential role as prognostic and/or predictive factors. Many ongoing clinical trials are exploring the activity of immune checkpoint modulators in BC treatment, both in the advanced and neoadjuvant setting. Although this field is expanding with exciting new discoveries and promising clinical results-and creating great expectations-there remain many uncertainties yet to be addressed satisfactorily before this long awaited therapeutic promise can come to fruition.
Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Seville, Spain. Electronic address: lcruz-ibis@us.es.
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L
de la Cruz-Merino
GEICAM (Spanish Breast Cancer Research Group), Madrid, Spain.
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Chiesa
GEICAM (Spanish Breast Cancer Research Group), Madrid, Spain.
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Caballero
Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain.
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F
Rojo
GEICAM (Spanish Breast Cancer Research Group), Madrid, Spain.
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N
Palazón
GEICAM (Spanish Breast Cancer Research Group), Madrid, Spain.
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FH
Carrasco
Medical School, Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Seville, Spain.
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Sánchez-Margalet
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D016923:Cell Death; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000473:pathology; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000639:trends*; D057285:Precision Medicine
Breast cancer; Clinical trial; Immune checkpoints; Immunogenic cell death; Immunotherapy; Myeloid-derived suppressor cells; Neoantigens; Regulatory T-cells; Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes