Tumor-specific immune response after systemic anti-tumor therapy in patients with primary and metastatic breast cancer and its prediction for systemic relapse

Breast cancer is an immunological tumor that can induce a tumor antigen-specific immune response by developing tumor antigen-reactive CD45R0 Memory T-cells (trMTC) as detectable in bone marrow by INF-γ EliSpot analysis. Less is known, however, about the effect of systemic therapies on specific immune cells. We compared bone marrow trMTC levels at the time of the first surgical procedure with immune responses after 1 year in 18 primary breast cancer patients without any signs of tumor recurrence. Furthermore, we analysed 36 patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and compared their immune status with that of untr…