Grant: Project Grant - PA: Breast Cancer Research

Breast cancer is the most common cancer type and is the leading cause of female mortality worldwide. Unfortunately, the incidence of breast cancer is still increasing in North America. The use of immunotherapy that reinvigorates the immune system against cancer has witnessed an unprecedented revolution in cancer treatment. There is tremendous interest in using immunotherapy to treat breast cancer. However, breast cancer patients do not respond well to such treatments. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand how the immune system fights breast cancer in particular in the tumor microenvironment. Anemia is another factor that impacts the overall survival of breast cancer patients. We believe that anemia can negatively influence the immune response against the tumor. Anemia can result in the expansion of immature red blood cells in the blood and tumor tissues of breast cancer patients. We have found that these cells suppress the immune system against cancer and at the same time secrete some proteins that bind to breast tumors and expand them. Also, we have found that tumor spread can be prevented by stopping the interaction of these proteins with cancer cells. Moreover, we have discovered a novel immunotherapy target in breast cancer. Therefore, this project will allow us to better understand how these immature red blood cells affect tumor progression and how this can be prevented. We believe our novel approach will answer some fundamental questions in the breast cancer field and assist us to develop an immunotherapy approach to prevent breast cancer metastasis. Alternatively, this knowledge can be applied to other cancers.