Immunotherapy takes on a new role in treating patients with triple-negative disease.
Cure Today
BY HEATHER STRINGER
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
In 2012, Brenda Berchtold was running out of breast cancer treatment options when her oncologist in Baltimore suggested one other possibility: immunotherapy. Dr. Leisha Emens was leading a clinical trial for Tecentriq (atezolizumab), and Berchtold would receive infusions once every three weeks for nearly a year.
The 55-year-old mother of two had received a diagnosis of cancer in her right breast in 1986 after she felt a pea-size lump during a self-exam. Results of a biopsy showed that the cancer was estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative and HER2 negative, which meant she had an aggressive form of disease known as triple-negative breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation and enjoyed seven years of remission. But then the cancer returned.
Triple-negative breast cancer does not respond to hormonal therapies or drugs that target the HER2 protein, and Berchtold endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy over the years only to see the cancer eventually return in her right breast. In 2009, she underwent a bilateral mastectomy, but a year later, scans showed evidence of cancer in her lymph nodes and sternum. Emens, who is now co-leader of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center’s Immunology and Immunotherapy Program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suggested that Berchtold enroll in a vaccine trial, but her cancer progressed while she was on the trial. That’s when Emens suggested the Tecentriq trial.
Read the Full Article Here: