A new study at the Centre for Cancer Immunology is aiming to improve treatment of chemotherapy-refractory breast cancer patients.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with approximately 15% of patients not surviving five years after they have been diagnosed.
While neoadjuvant chemotherapy (pre-surgery to shrink the tumour) and adjuvant chemotherapy (post-surgery) are effective in some breast cancer patients, a considerable number develop resistance overtime leading to poor overall survival.
Research shows that a subset of immune cells, called myeloid cells, are in close contact with the tumours and help them grow, leading to breast cancer patients developing resistance to conventional treatments.
Studies in Southampton have shown that a group of receptors, called LILRBs, are involved in this process.
In the new study, funded by Breast Cancer Now, scientists at the Centre for Cancer Immunology will use patient tumour biopsies, state-of-the-art preclinical models of breast cancer and novel monoclonal antibody drugs to analyse how LILRB3 regulates myeloid cell function, at the single-cell level.
The team, led by Dr Ali Roghanian, in collaboration with Professors Stephen Beers and Ramsey Cutress and Drs Matthew Rose-Zerilli, Meg Ashton-Key and Ellen Copson, will also test whether blocking LILRB3 with monoclonal antibodies can improve breast cancer chemotherapy.
Dr Roghanian said: “Breast cancer is a devastating disease which effects so many people across the UK and beyond. Through this study we are targeting a negative feedback loop between the tumour cells and myeloid cells to overcome resistance to chemotherapy.
These data will provide better understanding of the common mechanisms involved in suppressing the immune system in therapy-resistant breast cancer patients, and will, ideally, translate into future treatments in the clinic. We hope our findings will benefit a wide range of patients with various subtypes of breast cancers, in particular those of more aggressive nature and hard-to-treat, such as Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.”