Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Hormone therapy is currently advised for ER+ metastatic breast cancer patients; however in most of them the arising of resistance is a not yet well understood hurdle to overcome. We hypothesized that in these patients during clinical benefit from antiestrogen therapy the addition of cycles of sequential immunotherapy could prolong the benefit and delay the occurrence of acquired hormone resistance. In order to validate this hypothesis, in 1992 we started an open, prospective exploratory clinical trial. Here we summarize and update the clinical data and focus on the main serum biomarkers that proved helpful to monitor the efficacy of hormone immune therapy.

Biography

Andrea Nicolini mainly devoted his research over the past 20 years to the field of breast and colorectal cancer, particularly the use of serum tumor markers in the "early" detection and treatment of metastatic disease and the function of cell mediated immunity. The role of immunotherapy combined with conventional antiestrogen therapy to overcome the arising of resistance in endocrine dependent metastatic breast cancer was another main explored research field. He has published about 250 original papers/review articles (including book chapters), most of them in peer reviewed journals with I F. He is a part of the Editorial Board of a few high rank scientific journals and regularly serves as reviewer for them and many others.