Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) clinical practice guideline on immunotherapy for the treatment of breast cancer

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Leisha A Emens, University of Pittsburgh; Sylvia Adams, New York University Langone; Ashley Cimino-Mathews, Johns Hopkins University; Mary L Disis, University of Washington; Margaret E Gatti-Mays, Ohio State University; Alice Y Ho, Massachusetts General Hospital; Kevin Kalinsky, Emory University; Heather L McArthur, UT Southwestern; Elizabeth A Mittendorf, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Rita Nanda, University of Chicago; David B Page, Earle A Chiles Research Institute; Hope S Rugo, University of California San Francisco; Krista M Rubin, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center; Hatem Soliman, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute; Patricia A Spears, University of North Carolina; Sara M Tolaney, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Jennifer K Litton, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-08-01
• Publisher: BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2021-002597
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: JOURNAL FOR IMMUNOTHERAPY OF CANCER
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 8
• Grant/Funding Information: The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
• Keywords: NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY; Oncology; immunotherapy; Science & Technology; QUALITY-OF-LIFE; ENDOCRINE THERAPY; breast neoplasms; MICROSATELLITE INSTABILITY; PATIENT-REPORTED OUTCOMES; TUMOR-INFILTRATING LYMPHOCYTES; guidelines as topic; Immunology; clinical trials as topic; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; MHC CLASS-I; RESPONSE EVALUATION CRITERIA; PHASE-III; PLUS NAB-PACLITAXEL
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Health Sciences, Oncology

Abstract

Breast cancer has historically been a disease for which immunotherapy was largely unavailable. Recently, the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced/metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has demonstrated efficacy, including longer progression-free survival and increased overall survival in subsets of patients. Based on clinical benefit in randomized trials, ICIs in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of some patients with advanced/metastatic TNBC have been approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA), expanding options for patients. Ongoing questions remain, however, about the optimal chemotherapy backbone for immunotherapy, appropriate biomarker-based selection of patients for treatment, the optimal strategy for immunotherapy treatment in earlier stage disease, and potential use in histological subtypes other than TNBC. To provide guidance to the oncology community on these and other important concerns, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a multidisciplinary panel of experts to develop a clinical practice guideline (CPG). The expert panel drew upon the published literature as well as their clinical experience to develop recommendations for healthcare professionals on these important aspects of immunotherapeutic treatment for breast cancer, including diagnostic testing, treatment planning, immune-related adverse events (irAEs), and patient quality of life (QOL) considerations. The evidence-based and consensus-based recommendations in this CPG are intended to give guidance to cancer care providers treating patients with breast cancer.