What You Need to Know About Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer in Mexico
Immunotherapy is a revolutionary treatment option for cancer. It is effective for many forms of cancer, including lung cancer.
But what about breast cancer, which is the most common form of cancer in women worldwide?
Immunotherapy for breast cancer in Mexico is showing promise. There are specific challenges in understanding why immunotherapy for breast cancer is more difficult to treat than other forms of cancer.
What is Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer?
Immunotherapy is the use of medicine to stimulate your body’s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Immunotherapy agents can shrink tumors or slow their growth.
To understand how these agents work, one must understand how the immune system knows not to attack “normal cells.” The immune system essentially will use a “checkpoint,” which are proteins on immune cells that turn on or off based on if there needs to be an immune response.
What are the Challenges with Breast Cancer and Immunotherapy?
Breast cancer cells will “use” the checkpoints to avoid being attacked by the immune system. Some breast cancer cells are also “immunology cold”, meaning there are no immune cells inside to stimulate.
Sometimes the T-Cells can access the tumor but are attacked by “bad” immune cells, so the immunotherapy is not effective. Combining these challenges has made breast cancer less responsive to immunotherapy than other types of cancer. But there have been recent advancements.
Is There Success in Treating Breast Cancer with Immunotherapy?
We have found there are immune cells in breast cancer tumors at the early stage. Immunotherapy for breast cancer in Mexico shows promise when used as a first-line treatment option in combination with chemotherapy.
The two immunotherapy agents that have shown promise are pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and atezolizumab (Tecentriq). Both agents use immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat breast cancer by binding of PD-1 and PD-L1 proteins.
To know if the drugs are an option for a patient, a biopsy must be done, showing the patient has high levels of PD-L1 Proteins. More agents are continuing to be tested through clinical trials.
What are Other Treatment Options that Work With Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer in Mexico?
Radiofrequency ablation for cancer is a minimally invasive technique that uses heat to eliminate tumors and cancer cells. One study concluded that radiofrequency ablation is a safe and promising treatment option for breast cancer when tumors are less than 2 cm in diameter. There continues to be more research into effectiveness on other patients.
Cryoablation immunotherapy is the use of cold to destroy benign and cancerous tumors. It is effective in the most common breast cancer tumors. According to The American Society of Breast Surgeons, “The FDA has approved the use of cryoablation as a safe and effective therapy for fibroadenomas.” Additionally, the society states the results of cryoablation “demonstrate the procedure to be safe, efficacious, and durable.”
Looking for Breast Cancer Treatment in Mexico? Williams Cancer Institute Can Help!
Dr. Jason Williams combines interventional radiology expertise with his knowledge of cancer, immunology, and immunotherapy. If you need breast cancer treatment options in Mexico, then we can help.
Williams Cancer Institute offers experience in radiofrequency ablation, immunotherapy agents, and chemotherapy options. Contact us to discuss the right choice for you. We can also help you schedule an appointment with our oncologist.
The material contained on this site is for informational purposes only and DOES NOT CONSTITUTE THE PROVIDING OF MEDICAL ADVICE, and is not intended to be a substitute for independent professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your health.