Atezolizumab
Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) is an immunotherapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration
to treat metastatic
triple-negative breast cancer
that expresses the PD-L1 protein
. Immunotherapies push the body's own immune system
to attack cancer cells. Atezolizumab is the first immunotherapy to show positive results in in phase III trial
for triple-negative breast cancer.
Atezolizumab works in people who have tumors that express the PD-L1 protein. This protein has a role in telling the immune system that a given cell is part of your body. In tumors that express PD-L1, the protein tricks the immune system into believing cancer cells are healthy cells, which prevents these cells from attacking the cancer.
Atezolizumab blocks PD-L1, allowing the immune system to attack breast cancer cells.
Atezolizumab is only approved for people with triple-negative breast cancer and is given with the chemotherapy nab-paclitaxel
.
How Atezolizumab Works
An immunotherapy is a medicine
that works to engage your immune system
, your body's natural defense against diseases. Since cancer cells are mutated versions of your own cells, the immune system treats them as a natural part of your body. Immunotherapies block certain communications between immune cells and cancer cells. This causes the immune system to treat the cancer cells as a threat and to destroy them.
Atezolizumab targets the PD-L1 protein, stopping a reaction that tells immune cells not to attack breast cancer cells. With that reaction blocked, the immune system sees breast cancer cells as a disease and destroys them.
The PD-L1 protein is not found in all tumors. Doctors will test the immune cells in and around the breast cancer to see if they express PD-L1 and are likely to respond to atezolizumab.
Who Gets Atezolizumab
Atezolizumab is given with the chemotherapy medicine
nab-paclitaxel
for metastatic
triple-negative breast cancer
that tests positive for the PD-L1. This combination is the first treatment given after a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis
.
How Atezolizumab is Given
Atezolizumab is given by vein at your treatment center. The first treatment is given over the course of an hour, and follow-up infusions are given every 3 weeks and take 30 minutes.
Side Effects and Things to Remember
People taking atezolizumab and nab-paclitaxel experienced side effects including nausea
, cough, low white blood cell
counts and hypothyroidism, a condition
where your body does not produce enough thyroid hormones. People taking atezolizumab are also more likely to experience grade
3 or 4 neuropathy
than people taking nab-paclitaxel alone. Side effects that are grade 3 or 4 interfere with daily life and require medical attention.
Atezolizumab, like other immunotherapies, is linked to immune-related side effects that can take different forms, including problems in the lungs, liver or intestines or reactions to the infusion of the medicine
. Your healthcare providers will talk to you about watching for these problems and what symptoms you should report right away.