Grant: Project Grant

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive form of breast cancer that has a high risk of recurrence and spread to distant organs (metastasis) even if detected at an early stage. We propose to study a new radiation treatment for early stage TNBC in mice with human TNBC tumours that could more effectively treat these tumours and prevent metastasis. These mice are a special strain that displays a human immune system so that the ability of this new treatment to recruit the immune system to attack tumours may be studied. One component of the new treatment will be a small "seed" (nanoparticle depot) that can be implanted into a tumour to locally treat the tumour with radiation. The mice will also be treated with immunotherapy and chemotherapy, which are the standard treatments for early stage TNBC. Following local treatment of the TNBC tumour with the nanoparticle depot, the mice will then receive an intravenously administered form of radiation treatment (radioimmunotherapy) that can target and kill tumour cells that have spread throughout the body. This treatment will also be combined with immunotherapy. The goal is to more effectively treat TNBC tumours and prevent or treat metastasis since metastatic TNBC is not curable leading unfortunately to death from this aggressive form of breast cancer.