Oncogene addiction and immunity: clinical implications of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancers overexpressing the HER2/neu oncogene

Abstract

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the evidence that correlates tumour infiltrating lymphocytes, a surrogate biomarker of pre-existing host antitumour immunity, and survival in HER2-overexpressing breast cancers. This is of particular relevance to developing immune biomarkers and harnessing new immunotherapeutics in this breast cancer subtype. RECENT FINDINGS: Oncogene addiction, in which cancer cells become reliant on a single oncogenic pathway for tumour growth and progression, has traditionally been thought of as a cell intrinsic characteristic. However, increasing evidence from multiple studies exploring the relationship between markers of an antitumour immune response and clinical outcome in ..