Breast cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy for breast cancer in Israel is a treatment that uses certain parts of the immune system to fight breast cancer. Immunotherapy drugs stimulate the immune system to search for cancer cells or add components (proteins) to the human immune system for killing cancer cells.

Traditional methods of treating breast cancer in Israel include chemotherapy, radiosurgery and surgery. Hormone therapy is also used in women with tumors with a positive hormone receptor as it helps to reduce the levels of estrogen and progesterone.

However, the advantage of breast cancer immunotherapy is that being biological by nature, it acts more softly and causes fewer side effects.

Currently, the FDA approved three immunotherapy drugs for patients with tumors of HER2 overexpression:

• Herceptin (Trastuzumab);

• Perjeta (Pertuzumab);

• Kadcyla (Ado-Trastuzumab).

Other immunotherapy drugs are currently being tested in clinical trials for breast cancer. Some of them showed impressive results.

Recent studies have shown that triple negative breast cancer is one of the subtypes that is most likely to respond the same as to treatment methods of melanoma.

PRECISION TREATMENT OF BREAST CANCER

A new approach to the treatment of breast cancer in Israel is the Personalized (precision) medicine. It arose as a reaction to the fact that not all women respond equally to the standard treatment of breast cancer that are suitable for the statistically average patient. Moreover, some patients respond to treatment with drugs that are used to treat other cancers.

Therefore, in recent years, our doctors have taken a course to personalize the treatment of breast cancer.

Immunotherapy drugs are also used in personalized treatment of breast cancer in Israel. In a personalized method, our doctors select drugs for each woman (based on molecular genomic tests for tumor tissue or blood samples) that may not be included in the standard treatment protocol, but show effect during the tests. As a result, a woman receives an individual list of drugs that has an effective prognosis for her tumor only.

Learn more:

⇒ Precision treatment of breast cancer in Israel.

⇒ Precision (personalised) medicine is a new approach to cancer treatment in Israel.

⇒ Dr. Raanan Berger – Head of the Israeli Oncology Institute – What is a personalized cancer treatment and why is it important?