Recent progress in immunotherapy and vaccine development for breast malignancies

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the leading causes of death globally. The drastic changes in lifestyle, food habits, and environmental factors, etc., are supposed to play a crucial role in the emergence of breast malignancies. The overexpression of estrogen receptors and genetic mutations have been found to be linked with an increased risk of breast malignancies. Immunotherapy and vaccine development have shown great promise as novel approaches for optimized therapy and prevention. Certain patients have demonstrated the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibitors, namely atezolizumab, pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1), and ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4). The peptide-based vaccinations against tumor-associated antigens, like human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and Mucin1, are both safe and immunogenic. Personalized treatment techniques can also be achieved by adoptive cell therapies, such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. In conclusion, the development of vaccines and immunotherapy is a promising new direction in BC research that could lead to more individualized treatment plans and better results.