Emerging Immunotherapies against Novel Molecular Targets in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Immunotherapy is a highly emerging form of breast cancer therapy that enables clinicians to target cancers with specific receptor expression profiles. Two popular immunotherapeutic approaches involve chimeric antigen receptor-T cells (CAR-T) and bispecific antibodies (BsAb). Briefly mentioned in this review as well is the mRNA vaccine technology recently popularized by the COVID-19 vaccine. These forms of immunotherapy can highly select for the tumor target of interest to generate specific tumor lysis. Along with improvements in CAR-T, bispecific antibody engineering, and therapeutic administration, much research has been done on novel molecular targets that can especially be useful for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) immunotherapy. Combining emerging immunotherapeutics with tumor marker discovery sets the stage for highly targeted immunotherapy to be the future of cancer treatments. This review highlights the principles of CAR-T and BsAb therapy, improvements in CAR and BsAb engineering, and recently identified human breast cancer markers in the context of in vitro or in vivo CAR-T or BsAb treatment.

Doxorubicin sensitizes breast cancer cells to natural killer cells in connection with increased Fas receptors

“…A broad range of immunotherapeutic approaches has previously been developed. Adoptive immune cell therapy has been reported to treat BC ( 47 ), including conventional immune cells (i.e., NK cells) ( 48 ), cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) ( 49 ), tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) ( 50 ), genetically modified immune cells [i.e., chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T lymphocytes] ( 51 , 52 ) and CAR-NK cells ( 53 - 55 ). Doxorubicin could be used in combination with those cellular immuno-therapies or as an adjuvant therapy to enhance immune cell function, and to combat rapidly growing cancer cells and their strong microenvironment.…”

Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases: Mechanisms in Cancer

“…We hope that the explored molecular mechanisms and modulation of cancerous phenotypes underlying PTP activity will lead to further research on how PTPs function in other cancers. Increased treatment efficacy could be achieved by combining PTP-related therapeutics with the wide variety of emerging cancer-associated receptors that are susceptible to immunotherapy [ 114 ]. Currently, PTP inhibitors have been explored at the pre-clinical level as well as clinical trials [ 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 ].…”

Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer: When, How, and What Challenges?

“…Breast cancer (BC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide and one in three women have a risk of developing BC in their lifetime, making BC the leading cause of cancer in the world [ 1 , 2 ]. By 2050, female BC is expected to reach 3.2 million new cases worldwide [ 3 ].…”

“…Breast carcinomas that do not express ER, PR and HER2 are classified as basal or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) [ 1 ]. This subtype accounts for approximately 10–20% of all BC and represents a high-risk group associated with increased rates of relapse, recurrence and mortality [ 7 , 13 , 14 ].…”

“…[ 11 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Indeed, accumulating data now support a key role for the immune system in determining both responses to standard therapy and long-term survival in patients with BC [ 1 , 6 , 14 ].…”