Breast Cancer: Targeted and Immunotherapies
Targeted and Immunotherapies for Breast Cancer
This section covers the following topics:
What is ?
Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment designed to attack or kill cancer cells, while sparing normal cells as much as possible. They are designed to target abnormal proteins, receptors or genes that are found in cancer cells or the surrounding tissue.
PARP inhibitors
PARP inhibitors are a type of targeted therapy that works by blocking a protein that the body uses to repair damage. They were initially developed to treat cancers in people with an inherited or mutation.
- For breast cancer, two PARP inhibitors have received FDA-approval as targeted therapy for treating people with an inherited mutation:
- Lynparza ()
- ()
- For people with early breast cancer at high risk for recurrence:
- Lynparza may be used as treatment after chemotherapy in people with an inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. Lynparza is approved for patients with high-risk, early stage breast cancer and an inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.
Researchers are studying new ways to use PARP inhibitors to treat breast cancer, including:
- for people with an in a different gene that repairs DNA damage (for example: , or ).
- for people who do not have an inherited gene mutation, but their tumor tested positive for an acquired mutation in a gene that repairs DNA damage.
Visit our Featured Research section for more information.
Other targeted therapies
Targeted therapies are often given to people based on specific changes in their cancer cells. Tumor testing can help doctors identify the patients most likely to benefit from a targeted therapy. Common targeted therapies used in breast cancer include:
Triple-negative breast cancers
- Metastatic, that has progressed may be treated with the drug Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan).
or HER2-low breast cancers
- HER2-positive breast cancers of all stages are often treated with drugs that target the protein. Common anti-HER2 therapies include Herceptin (trastuzumab), Perjeta (pertuzumab) and Tukysa (tucatinib), Phesgo (pertuzumab, trastuzumab and hyaluronidase) and Enhertu (T-DXd).
- Metastatic or advanced HER2-low breast cancers may be treated with the anti-HER2 drug Enhertu.
Hormone receptor-positive breast cancers
- advanced breast cancers are often treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors. CDK4/6 inhibitors target proteins found in some breast cancers called CDK inhibitors. The three CDK4/6 inhibitors approved for use in breast cancer are: Ibrance (palbociclib), Kisqali (ribociclib) and Verzenio (abemaciclib).
- ER/PR-positive breast cancers that test positive for a tumor biomarker called PIK3CA may be treated with the drug Piqray (alpelisib). PIK3CA is an acquired gene mutation found in some ER-positive breast cancers.
- The drug Truqap (capivasertib) combined with fulvestrant is FDA approved to treat , advanced or metastatic breast cancer with a mutation in , PIK3 or AKT1 genes which recurred or got worse after standard hormone therapy.
In the News
What is ?
Immunotherapies are cancer treatments that help the body’s immune system detect and attack cancer cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy used to treat several types of cancer, including breast cancer. Some cancer cells can switch off the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are drugs that prevent this from happening. This allows the immune system to find, unmask and destroy cancer cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are approved for treating breast cancer in the following situations:
- Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is approved in combination with chemotherapy for treatment of triple-negative breast cancer that is metastatic or locally recurrent and unresectable that tests positive for a biomarker called .
- Keytruda is approved for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer that is at high risk for recurrence. In this setting, Keytruda is used along with chemotherapy as therapy before surgery. Following surgery, Keytruda is continued alone.
See our Immunotherapy section for more information.
Participate in Breast Cancer Treatment Research
Below are some of our featured research studies looking at new ways to treat breast cancer using targeted or immunotherapies. To search for additional studies, visit our Search and Enroll Tool.
Study of a New InvestigationaI Inhibitor to Treat People with Advanced Solid Tumors
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT05932862
New Treatment in People with Triple Negative Breast Cancer or Advanced Solid Tumors
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT06022029
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT05720039
