Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

IMMUNOTHERAPY

Chemotherapy as a TONIC to invigorate PD-1 inhibition in TNBC

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 16, page 464 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Disappointingly, immune-checkpoint inhibitors, such as those targeting programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), have limited single-agent activity in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC). New findings suggest, however, that short-duration induction chemotherapy can enhance sensitivity to these agents.

In the first part of the adaptive, non-comparative, phase II TONIC trial, 67 patients with mTNBC were treated with the anti-PD-1 antibody nivolumab after 2 weeks of either hypofractionated irradiation of a single tumour site; low-dose cyclophosphamide, cisplatin or doxorubicin; or no induction therapy. Overall, the objective response rate (ORR) was 20% and, although the median progression-free survival was only 1.9 months, the median duration of response was 9 months. ORRs with anti-PD-1 monotherapy in similar cohorts are typically 5–10%. “We observed higher than expected efficacy in the patients who received doxorubicin or cisplatin,” states Marleen Kok: ORRs in the doxorubicin, cisplatin, no induction, cyclophosphamide and radiotherapy groups were 35%, 23%, 17%, 8% and 8%, respectively.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original article

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology http://www.nature.com/nrclinonc

    David Killock

Authors
  1. David Killock
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Killock.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Killock, D. Chemotherapy as a TONIC to invigorate PD-1 inhibition in TNBC. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 16, 464 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-019-0232-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-019-0232-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer