Dr. Domchek Discusses Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer

Susan Domchek, MD, director of the Basser Center for BRCA at Penn Medicine, discusses the development of immunotherapy in breast cancer.

Both physicians and patients are hopeful that immunotherapy regimens will show more success in breast cancer, explains Domchek. Currently, there are a lot of drugs that work well for patients with breast cancer compared with the limited options in other tumors where immunotherapy has been helpful. Breast tumors shrink well with chemotherapy, which sets the bar higher for immunotherapy, says Domchek.

Breast cancer is fundamentally different than melanoma or lung cancer, where immunotherapy has shown a significant benefit. According to Domchek, it is important to understand which groups are most likely to respond to immunotherapy. For example, there is a signal for the first-line treatment of patients with triple-negative breast cancer, where immunotherapy can induce durable responses.