JCI: How cancer cells evade immune attacks

January 28, 2021 /--- Researchers at Indiana University Melvin and The Brun Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center have determined how breast cancer cells escape immune cells to survive.
findings could lead to better immunotherapy treatments for patients.
Xinna Zhang and colleagues found that when levels of a protein called MAL2 on the surface of breast cancer cells increased, cancer cells were able to escape immune attacks and continue to grow.
study was published in the journal Clinical Investigation.
(Photo: www.pixabay.com) "Like other cancer cells, breast cancer cells also have tumor-specific antigens on the cell membrane, which are recognized by immune cells, so they can kill tumor cells."
our study found that MAL2 lowers the levels of these antigens, so these tumor cells are protected from being considered a threat by these immune cells.
the future of cancer treatment, immunotherapy can use the body's immune system to target and destroy cancer cells," he said.
Xiongbin Lu, professor of breast cancer innovation at the Vera Bradley Foundation and a researcher at the Cancer Center, explains that understanding how cancer cells avoid immune attacks can provide new ways to improve patient immunotherapy.
Said: "Current cancer immunotherapy has achieved impressive results in some patients, but more than 70 per cent of breast cancer patients are unresponsive to cancer immunotherapy.
the biggest causes of cancer is that tumors develop mechanisms to evade immune attacks.
Zhang, assistant professor of medicine and molecular genetics at the IU School of Medicine, has developed a computational method that allows The Cancer Genome Atlas to analyze data sets from more than 1,000 breast cancer patients.
based on the results, the researchers chose MAL2.
showed that higher LEVELs of MAL2 in breast cancer, especially triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), were associated with poor survival rates in patients.
Zhang Xinna will study the data further to determine the role of MAL2 in cells, how it affects the growth of breast cancer cells and their interaction with immune cells.
she analyzed samples of breast cancer tissue from IU patients, tissue cell models and animal models and found that breast cancer cells expressed more MAL2 than normal cells.
also found that high levels of MAL2 can significantly enhance tumor growth, while inhibiting the protein can almost completely prevent tumor growth.
now, researchers are exploring ways to use these findings to develop and improve breast cancer treatment.
(Bioon.com) Source: Researchers discover how breast cancer cells hide from immune attack Original source: Yuanzhang Fang et al, MAL2 drives immune in breast cancer by suppressing tumor antigen presentation, Journal of Clinical Investigation (2020). DOI: 10.1172/JCI140837