Oral Presentation 27th Lorne Cancer Conference 2015

Rationale for immunotherapeutic approaches in breast cancer (#24)

Sherene Loi 1
  1. Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Breast cancer has not traditionally been considered as an immunogenic disease; however recent studies demonstrate significant associations between immune cell infiltration via tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in primary patient breast tumors and clinical outcomes. The presence of TILs has been associated with increased response rates to cytotoxic chemotherapy as well as targeted therapies, leading to improved disease free and overall survival in certain breast cancer subtypes. In this talk I will discuss the clinical significance of TILs, preclinical data suggesting the potential of immunological approaches in breast cancer, as well as recent evidence of objective responses to immunotherapies in breast cancer. As well as this, efforts are ongoing to standardize methodology for evaluating TILs within clinical breast cancer specimens in routine histopathological practice.

  1. The evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer: recommendations by an International TILs Working Group 2014. Salgado R, Denkert C, Demaria S, et al Ann Oncol. 2014 Sep 11. pii: mdu450.
  2. Host antitumor immunity plays a role in the survival of patients with newly diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer. Loi S; J Clin Oncol. 2014 Sep 20;32(27):2936-8.
  3. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes are prognostic in triple negative breast cancer and predictive for trastuzumab benefit in early breast cancer: results from the FinHER trial. Loi S, Michiels S, Salgado R et al Ann Oncol. 2014 Aug;25(8):1544-50.