A ‘molecular microscope’ approach to develop immune therapy for breast cancer
Background
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. While there has been good progress in developing breast cancer therapies, there are still very limited treatment options for around a third of women with the disease. One approach that holds promise is immunotherapy – using the body’s own immune response to fight the cancer. But much more basic knowledge of how immune cells control breast cancer spread is needed to design effective therapies.
The research
It’s known that cells called Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs) dampen the body’s immune response to breast cancer and help tumours grow and spread. Dr Gallego Ortega’s team is trying to understand the details of how this happens, so they can develop treatments that block these cells. They have already uncovered some key steps in the process and developed a promising prototype immunotherapy. This treatment is able to boost the immune system to elicit the rejection of cancer cells. Dr Gallego Ortega’s team will use a ‘molecular microscope’ approach to study populations of MDSCs in breast cancer tumours. The information gained from this study will take the team another step closer to extending this promising immunotherapy to clinical trials.
The impact
Dr Gallego Ortega’s approach allows insights into processes happening at the single cell level within the mass of disorganised cells that make up a tumour. Providing a detailed catalogue of all the cell types present in the tumours, this level of insight has never been achieved before. It is a critical step in the development of treatments that target MDSCs and so could pave the way for immune therapies for breast cancer. It also the start of an entirely new understanding of tumour biology that could in future benefit patients with a wide range of other cancer types.