Estrogens are known to drive tumor growth in breast cancer cells carrying its receptors. Now a new study has discovered thatThese sex hormones fuel the growth of breast cancers and other tumors, even if there are no receivers.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute (Durham, North Carolina) and published this Friday in the journal Science Advances, describes howEstrogens not only decrease the capacity of the immune system to attack tumors, but also reduce the effectiveness of immunotherapies, especially those that treat triple negative breast cancers.
LoTriple negative breast cancers are an aggressive form of the disease that are negative for estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptor proteins.
Basing in patient data analysis and in experiments cIn mice, researchers found that antiestrogen drugs reversed the effects of estrogen, restoring the potency of immunotherapies, a finding that could serve as a therapeutic target.
“Treatment of triple-negative breast cancer has greatly improved with the advent of immunotherapy,” said Donald McDonnell, lead author of the study and a Duke researcher.
“Developing ways to increase the anticancer activity of immunotherapies is a primary goal of our research. Here we found a simple way to boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy for this type of breast cancer, and the benefit was seen even in other types of breast cancer.” cancer, such as melanoma and colon cancer,” says the doctor.
white blood cells
He team focused on a type of white blood cell called eosinophils, which are often activated during allergic reactions and inflammatory diseases.
Recently Eosinophils have been found to be important in tumorsand a phenomenon called tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia (TATE) is associated with better outcomes in patients with several types of cancer (colon, esophagus, stomach, mouth, melanoma, and liver).
In their studies, the Duke team described how estrogens decrease the number of eosinophils and TATE in mice.
The hormone contributes to increasing tumor growth in estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer tumors and in melanoma tumors, which do not depend on estrogen receptors for tumor growth.
On the contrary, antiestrogen therapies inhibited estrogen receptor signaling and enhanced the effectiveness of immunotherapies, slowing tumor growth.
“These findings highlight the importance of estrogen receptor signaling as a regulator of eosinophil biology and TATE, and highlight the potential short-term clinical application of antiestrogen drugs to enhance the benefits of immunotherapies in multiple types.” of tumors,” says McDonnell.
Clinical trials are being planned with an investigational antiestrogenic drug called lasofoxifene in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, the researcher advances.
CLG
