When I search for “immunotherapy” on this site I mostly see posts related to other types of cancers, but not MBC. I believe there are a few immunotherapies approved for MBC and there are several in clinical trials, but unless I’m missing it they don’t seem to get much discussion on this board.
Immunotherapies might be the next step for my wife who is starting to show progression after 4 months on Oserdu.
If anyone is on an immunotherapy can you share your experience?
Maybe if you search by the drug name you might have more success. There’s not many drug options at this time.
Hi there, I’m not on it myself but my oncologist has told me about a breast cancer immunotherapy trial ongoing at Dana Farber called SACI-IO. It’s testing the combination of Trodelvy (targeted therapy) and Keytruda (immunotherapy) on ER+/PR+ MBC patients (I believe these drugs are already used for triple-negative BC). Everyone gets Trodelvy then the addition of Keytruda is randomized. Info at this link:
Thank you for the feedback.
There definitely are immunotherapy treatments for metastatic breast cancer patients.
Drugs ending with 'mab' eg trastuzumab is one such drug, I think drug names are what people on here tend to use,
When you know what drug/drugs your wife will be having it wiĺ be easier to find relevant information on this site.
Meanwhile you could perhaps Google 'how do immunotherapy drugs kill cancer cells" if you want to know how these drugs work.
All the best to you and your wife,
Hello Anders--I think there is some confusion here. Monoclonal antibody drugs are not called "immunotherapy." Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies made to cell surface antigens, or most anything. They are made originally in mice--or were when I worked in the field. "Immunotherapy" is a term used for drugs that stimulate the body to produce it's own antibodies to remove cancer cells--which is what happens in normal healthy humans. I was at a lecture where the immunotherapy drugs were used on many cancers. They do not work well for breast cancer. An example of an immunotherapy drug is Keytruda. Best to you!
Now I'm confused:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....
Me too. Just goes to show ya that using those "common names" doesn't communicate exactly what we want. (I'm a gardener and I find people don't like to use botanical plant names.) If you are interested in monoclonal antibody or targeted therapy or the true "immunotherapy" I have no idea how to search for either. As a medical lab scientist I know that these categories are not specific. Good luck!
I Googled. cancer.net/navigating-cance....
my oncologist said immunotherapy wasn’t the protocol for MBC, when I asked her a couple years ago.
Scroll up and see the reply I wrote to "Anders." Many people confuse drugs that are Monoclonal Antibodies and think they are "Immunotherapy" which they are not. Immunotherapy drugs trigger the body to produce its own antibodies to get rid of the cancer. Keytruda is one. These drugs do not work well for breast cancer. There are many drugs for breast cancer that are monoclonal antibodies--the most noted being Herceptin. But it is not called an "immunotherapy." Best to you in your search.
Thank you, good info as I’m just starting to research these options. May I ask what the source is of your statement that immunotherapies do not work well for breast cancer?
A genetics lecture at the MBC Conference in MN--just before pandemic. Speaker was a prof at the U of MN Masonic Cancer Center. Her name was Heather Beckwith. Maybe she has authored some articles. Try searching.
The reason why immunotherapies don’t tend to be used with MBC is because breast cancers don’t tend to be highly mutated. The entire mechanism behind immunotherapy relies on mutations. In 2020-2021, I participated in the NIMBUS clinical trial at Dana Farber. I was selected because I have a high mutational burden. For two years, I received a combination of nivolumbab and ipilimubab. I only stopped these drugs because study protocol dictated a two year max time frame. My results were miraculous … and continue to be. My major downside, and it is major, is that the immunotherapy attacked my adrenal glands and they no longer function. Here is the link to the study: aacrjournals.org/cancerres/...
Thank you, great info, very sorry to hear about the adrenal function. My wife also struggled with that after being on high doses of steroids for a year to recover from pneumonitis.
Would you mind sharing what mutations you had? My wife has the following:
- BRCA2
- ESR1
- MSH6
- TYMS
The ESR1 made her a candidate for Orserdu, but it’s efficacy seems to be diminishing after 4 months. I think her onco is looking at immunotherapies primarily due to the MSH6 mutation.
I have 38 mutations total. None of them match your wife’s mutations. But my understanding is that it’s the number of mutations and not, perhaps, the specific mutations that matter. Your wife is lucky to have you! I wish you all the best!
I have 13 mutations. My oncologist mentioned that since I have over 10 I may be a candidate for immunotherapy. I think the number of mutations matters more than the mutations.
I think for the most part immunotherapies for MBC will be gained in a clinical trial setting where the patient will get one along side a proven chemotherapy agent. However that being said I'm Canadian and our cancer society does a pretty good description of the different classifications that come under the main umbrella of Immunotherapy.
I was recently researching a clinical trial with an immunotherapy component. I ended up not pursuing because the literature to support immunotherapy in MBC is just not there yet. The one exception is if you are true HER2+ ...in which there are several proven immunotherapy umbrella agents. Here's the link I referenced. Hope it helps and good luck to you.
cancer.ca/en/treatments/tre...
I will add though that if I were running out of treatment options pursuing an Immunotherapy trial would definitely be in my cards. What really would you have to lose.
Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge, you are all truly remarkable and a wealth of info.
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