The Role of Immunotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer or Relapse

The Role of Immunotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer or Relapse

The Role of Immunotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer or Relapse from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Breast cancer treatment may involve immunotherapy or targeted therapy, but what do patients need to know? Expert Dr. Demetria Smith-Graziani discusses the roles of immunotherapy and targeted therapy and shares questions for patients to ask their doctor about immunotherapy.

Demetria Smith-Graziani, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Smith-Graziani.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…ask your oncologist about the standard of care or clinical trial options for the use of immunotherapy for your cancer, and if it would be beneficial to do any testing on your cancer to assess the benefit of immunotherapy.”

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Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

Dr. Smith, what is the role of immunotherapy or targeted therapy in breast cancer, specifically those whose cancer has relapsed or is in advanced stages?

Dr. Demetria Smith-Graziani:

Currently, we are using immunotherapy mostly for triple-negative breast cancer, for early stage breast cancer, that is not stage IV breast cancer,  we use immunotherapy sometimes in combination with chemotherapy for higher risk, triple-negative breast cancers to help reduce the risk of it coming back in the future.

We also use immunotherapy for metastatic or stage IV triple-negative breast cancer, specifically those cancers that are positive for a protein called PD-L1, we are also doing a number of clinical trials across the country and the world to figure out other situations in which we can use immunotherapy, whether without chemotherapy to treat other types of breast cancer, and my activation tip for patients is ask your oncologist about the standard of care or clinical trial options for the use of immunotherapy for your cancer, and if it would be beneficial to do any testing on your cancer to assess the benefit of immunotherapy.


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