Immunotherapy

Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive type of cancer that usually has a high rate of disease recurrence (returning) within the first 5 years after diagnosis.

The immune system attacks foreign substances by making large numbers of antibodies. These are proteins that attach to a specific protein on the cell called an antigen.

Chemotherapy for multiple myeloma had kept Cherie Rineker alive for 5 years, but then she realized she was slowly dying. So she embarked on a search for a clinical trial and by luck was able to join one. To her amazement, “What 2 stem-cell transplants and 13 other treatments had not been able to do in more than 65 months, CAR T-cell therapy did in less than 1 month,” she said.

In March 2019, the FDA approved Tecentriq (atezolizumab), a PD-L1 inhibitor, in combination with Abraxane (paclitaxel protein-bound), for use in adults with locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors cannot be removed by surgery and express PD-L1, as identified by an FDA-approved test. This is the first FDA-approved immunotherapy for patients with advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Claire White discusses the role of the FDA in evaluating new and promising treatments such as CAR T-cell therapy and the complexity of getting approvals.

Nurse Navigator Claire White describes the way she tells her patients what CAR T-cell therapy is and how it works.

Triple-negative breast cancer has few treatment options. Promising results from recent clinical trials of immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic disease may soon change the way this aggressive cancer is treated. Just after this article was written, the FDA approved this combination for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

Dr Morganna Freeman explains the difference between immunotherapies and targeted therapies in plain language for patients to easily understand.