Ex vivo immune response comparison between primary and metastatic tissues of cancer patients
2018
Yale University, New Haven, USA
A better understanding of immune microenvironment evolution during breast cancer progression is needed to design better therapies. In this study, the researchers compared primary tumors and metastasic tissues from breast cancer patients in terms of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte count and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein expression by immunohistochemistry and mRNA levels of 730 immune-related genes. The data suggest that metastatic breast cancer cells evade immune surveillance through multiple mechanisms including downregulation of a broad range of chemotactic and immune-activating cytokines, decreased antigen presentation leading to an immune-cell-depleted microenvironment and upregulation of immunosuppressive and immune evasion mechanisms that result in an inert immune environment. These results predict that immune therapy may be more successful in early-stage breast cancers rather than in metastatic disease. Also, the researchers identified several targets that are present in metastatic breast cancers and could provide the foundation for rational immunotherapy combination strategies.
Immunological differences between primary and metastatic breast cancer
L. Pusztai
Added on: 07-29-2021
[1] https://www.annalsofoncology.org/article/S0923-7534(19)31878-2/fulltext[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/352f7dfd-05cf-434b-a96a-7e270dc76573
