Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, with the ability to metastasize to secondary organs, which is the main cause of cancer-related deaths. Understanding how breast tumors progress is essential for developing better treatment strategies against breast cancer. Until recently, it has been considered that breast cancer elicits a small immune response. However, it is now clear that breast tumor progression is either prevented by the action of antitumor immunity or exacerbated by proinflammatory cytokines released mainly by the immune cells. In this comprehensive review we first explain antitumor immunity, then continue with how the tumor suppresses and evades the immune response, and next, outline the role of inflammation in breast tumor initiation and progression. We finally review the current immunotherapeutic and immunoengineering strategies against breast cancer as a promising emerging approach for the discovery and design of immune system-based strategies for breast cancer treatment.

乳腺癌是女性最常见的癌症之一，具有转移至次要器官的能力，是癌症相关死亡的主要原因。了解乳腺肿瘤的进展对于制定更好的乳腺癌治疗策略至关重要。直到最近，人们还认为乳腺癌会引起轻微的免疫反应。然而，现在很清楚，乳腺肿瘤的进展要么被抗肿瘤免疫的作用所阻止，要么被主要由免疫细胞释放的促炎细胞因子所加剧。在这篇综合综述中，我们首先解释抗肿瘤免疫，然后继续讨论肿瘤如何抑制和逃避免疫反应，然后概述炎症在乳腺肿瘤发生和进展中的作用。最后，我们回顾了当前针对乳腺癌的免疫治疗和免疫工程策略，将其视为发现和设计基于免疫系统的乳腺癌治疗策略的一种有前途的新兴方法。