Top immunotherapy advances of 2019

2019 was an exciting year for immunotherapy advances for triple-negative breast cancer, and Rita Nanda, MD, UChicago Medicine, Chicago, IL, outlined some of the highlights. In March, the FDA approved combination therapy with atezolizumab and paclitaxel for metastatic triple-negative programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expressing breast cancer. 

In addition, phase 1 and 2 trials exploring other new combination therapies for triple-negative breast cancers are well underway. In these, researchers will focus on PDL-1, AKT, and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibition, for example. Results of the KEYNOTE-522 trial also confirmed the benefits of pembrolizumab added to chemotherapy for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancers.

These results were shared at SABCS 2019.