Thanks to the addition of a molecule, it is possible to reinforce the effects of immunotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer. T cells are more likely to attack tumor cells, which slows down the spread of the disease.
-1609766216.jpg "Breast cancer: it is possible to strengthen the effectiveness of immunotherapy")
- The addition of cGAMP makes it possible to massively “attract” the T lymphocytes towards the tumor cells.
- CAR-T immunotherapy can effectively fight breast cancer.
Breast cancer is still scary. This pathology, the most common in women, is responsible for 12,000 deaths each year in France. Diagnosed in time, breast cancer offers an 87% chance of five-year survival.
One of the techniques for treating breast cancer is immunotherapy. From researchers at the UNC Lineberger cancer center (USA) have found a way to strengthen the immune system’s T lymphocytes by adding a molecule. The results of this study are published on December 31, 2020 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
An effective technique for lymphoma and leukemia
The technique used by researchers to optimize breast cancer treatment is called CAR-T immunotherapy. It consists of modifying T lymphocytes in the laboratory so that they produce chimeric antigen receptors, CARs, which in turn target surface proteins on cancer cells. This technique, already used to treat patients with leukemia or lymphoma, has shown its effectiveness.
By reproducing this experiment on mice with breast cancer, it was possible to effectively use CAR-T therapy against solid tumors. For this technique to be effective, the T cells must migrate to the tumor site. “In the treatment of patients with non-solid tumors, such as lymphomas, CAR T cells attach to the bone marrow and other organs that make up the lymphatic systemdevelops Jonathan Serody, professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center. In contrast, for solid tumors, such as breast cancer, this is usually not the case. Even though they migrate to the tumor, they do not persist there and do not grow well there due to the nature of the microenvironment that surrounds these tumors..”
Stimulate the immune system to defeat the tumor
To overcome this problem, the researchers focused on Th17 and Tc17 cells, which are known to persist longer in the microenvironment that surrounds a tumor, in part due to their better survival capacities. In order to stimulate the accumulation of Th17 and Tc17 cells near solid tumours, they used molecules capable of activating an immune response: the interferon gene stimulator (STING) and the agonists DMXAA and cGAMP. In mice injected with cGAMP, the researchers observed a proliferation of T cells migrating to the tumor. In the end, there was a significant decrease in tumor growth and an improvement in survival.
“We hope to be able to study cGAMP in humans soon enoughconcludes Jonathan Serody. We will first see if we can produce improvements in the treatment of head and neck cancers, and if this shows promise, move on to other forms of cancer using the CAR T cells generated by the one of our colleagues here at UNC Lineberger.”
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