Future prospects for breast cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy has already become an important component of the standard treatment of patients with advanced cancer. Most treatment methods include monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that block immune checkpoints, in particular, the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor and its ligand 1 (PD-L1) or are directed against T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4). The future prospects for immuno-oncology will be to determine whether these agents can be more effective if administered in a postoperative adjuvant or in a neoadjuvant regimen prior to surgical treatment. Vaccine therapy has shown promising results, and this therapy is especially attractive due to absence of pronounced toxicity.