December 1, 2016
Breast cancer is the second most deadly malignancy after lung cancer in woman in the United States, with an estimated 246,000 new cases and 40,450 deaths expected in 2016. Many treatment options for breast cancer exist including surgery, radiotherapy, anti-estrogen therapy, targeted therapies (e.g., trastuzumab), and chemotherapy. Despite these therapeutic advances, metastatic disease remains a significant source of mortality. Immunotherapy has seen remarkable progress in the last five years with four T cell immune checkpoint inhibitors approved. While none of these checkpoint inhibitors are approved in breast cancer, there are currently 60+ clinical trials ongoing in breast cancer with checkpoint inhibitors against PD-1 or PD-L1 and 20+ clinical trials ongoing with CTLA-4 inhibitors.
