Virginia Kaklamani, MD

“This study provides proof of concept in the advanced HER2-positive, trastuzu-mab-resistant setting. The presence of tumor--infiltrating lymphocytes was predictive of response. We don’t know if the addition of chemotherapy would help the tumor microenvironment,” said press conference moderator Virginia Kaklamani, MD, of The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio.

“Some patients still have antitumor immunity and can experience a durable benefit from this treatment. We are beginning to identify a subset of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer that would benefit from immunotherapy: programmed cell death ligand (PD-L1)–positive patients and those with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes > 5%. We are still struggling to do this in triple-negative breast cancer,” she added.

“These are the best data we have on immunotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer. If future studies pan out, we will have more options to treat this disease. This study gives us a good signal to continue to study immunotherapy in HER2-positive disease in combination with anti–HER2-therapy,” Dr. Kaklamani commented. ■

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Kaklamani is a consultant and speaker for Genentech.