Possible Mechanism Behind Failure of Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer Identified

Increased level of a protein on the cell surface of the breast cancer cells helps it to evade the immune attacks and continue to grow

Mechanism by which the breast cancer cells hide from immune cells, to stay alive is discovered by researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The increased level of a protein called MAL2 on the cell surface helps the cancer cells to evade immune attacks and continue to grow.

‘Increased level of a protein called MAL2 on the cell surface of the breast cancer cells helps it to evade the immune attacks and continue to grow. A thus better understanding of the immune cell mechanism behind breast cancer could lead to better immunotherapy treatment for patients.’

Breast cancer is a type of cancer that originates in the cells of the breasts, one of the most common cancers diagnosed in women. One in twenty-eight Indian women are likely to develop breast cancer during her lifetime with more than 50% of Indian women suffering from stage 3 and 4 of breast cancer.

Among the cancer treatments, immunotherapy harnesses the body's immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. Understanding the mechanism behind the bypass of immune attacks by cancer cells may offer new ways to improve immunotherapy for patients.

"Current cancer immunotherapy has wonderful results in some patients, but more than 70% of breast cancer patients do not respond to cancer immunotherapy. One of the biggest reasons is that tumors develop a mechanism to evade the immune attacks", says Xiongbin Lu, Ph.D., Vera Bradley Foundation Professor of Breast Cancer Innovation and cancer center researcher.

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Evasion of Immune Cell Attack by Cancer Cell

Using a computational method the team analyzed data sets from more than 1,000 breast cancer patients through The Cancer Genome Atlas. It was shown that higher levels of MAL2 in breast cancer, and especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), was linked to poorer patient survival.

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The role of MAL2's in the breast cancer cell growth and how it interacts with immune cells was further explored by the team. The high levels of MAL2 significantly showed significant enhancement of the tumor growth. Also, the inhibition of the MAL2 protein can almost completely stop tumor growth.

"Tumor cells can evade immune attacks; with less MAL2, the cancer cells can be recognized and killed by the immune system. MAL2 is a novel target. By identifying its function in cancer cells and cancer immunology, we now know its potential as a cancer immunology target" says Lu.

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This study thereby spots out that a better understanding of immune cell mechanism behind breast cancer could lead to better immunotherapy treatment for patients.

Source-Medindia