PD-1/PD-L1 Pathway: Current Research in Breast Cancer

Introduction: Immunotherapy has shown encouraging outcomes in breast cancer (BC) treatment in recent years. The programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) transmembrane protein is suggested to function as a co-inhibitory factor in the immune response, where it collaborates with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) to stimulate apoptosis, suppress cytokine release from PD-1 positive cells, and limit the growth of PD-1 positive cells. Furthermore, in many malignancies, PD-L1 reduces the immune system's response to neoplastic cells. These observations suggest that the PD-1/PD-L1 axis plays a vital role in cancer therapy and the regulation of cancer immune escape mechanisms. This review aimed to provide an overview of the functions of PD-1 and PD-L1 in BC cancer therapy.

Methods: This research design is a literature review. The style is a traditional review on topics or variables relating to the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway. A literature search was carried out using three online databases.

Results: The search using the keywords yielded a total of 248 studies. Each result was filtered again according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in a final total of 4 studies to be included in the literature review.

Conclusions: The combination of PD-1/PD-L1 is essential for many malignancies. According to the evidence presented, this combination presents both an opportunity and a challenge in cancer treatment. Since many solid cancers, especially BC, express high levels of PD-1/PD-L1, cancer treatment mainly involves targeted therapies.