New findings from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine provide clues about immune response of tumors in patients with BRCA1 and BRCA2-related breast cancers. The research, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, could shape treatment strategies and clinical trial design for these patients, who make up about two percent of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer.
“This study helps to highlight the immune characteristics of BRCA1/2 breast cancers and to identify the molecular features that may predict immunogenicity,” says the study’s senior author Katherine L. Nathanson, Pearl Basser Professor for BRCA-Related Research at the Abramson Cancer Center. “These data provide a strong building block for our work in uncovering the biological mechanisms that may inform treatment response for patients with BRCA1/2-related breast cancers. Each time we uncover new information that could help tailor the most effective treatments for each patient, we see it as a positive step forward.”
Checkpoint inhibitors are a popular immune therapy cancer treatment for some types of cancers and currently are being studied in clinical trials to test the efficacy in treating BRCA1/2 breast cancers.
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
