Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: How a new treatment might make triple-negative breast cancer cells vulnerable to immune therapy.
First of all, what IS immunotherapy? “Cancer immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that uses the power of the body’s own immune system to prevent, control, and eliminate cancer.”
The immune system of your body is what fights against infections. There are a bunch of cells in it that fight against infections. White blood cells (aka wbc’s) are the ones you usually hear about. If you are sick, a doctor may order a white cell count. When there are high numbers, then you have some sort of infections. The main organs of the immune system is called the lymph system. There’s NO lymph “heart”, instead, you just moving around pushes the lymph around her bodies.
The nodes and cells in the lymph system are full of different kinds of “immunoglobulin”, which is abbreviated “Ig”. There are a WHOLE BUNCH of kinds of Ig that are labeled just by a letter of the alphabet. Each kind does something different. For example, IgG is the major immunoglobulin class in the body and is found in the blood stream and in body tissues, like muscles, heart, brain, and many other places – including the breasts.
So, the immunoglobulins recognize a virus or germ as foreign, attaches to it and sets off a chain of events that bring together many other parts of the immune system that then work together to destroy the germ.
The wbc’s that help the immunoglobulins are gathered in what are called “lymph nodes”. You find them alongside all of your joints, especially in your neck “I have swollen glands! I must be sick!), armpits, and groin – but also your inside elbow and knee joints, wrists, and ankles. That’s because that’s where you move and that pushes the lymph around your body.
Anyone who has had breast cancer surgery that has progressed to Stage 2 or higher, may have had lymph nodes surgically removed.
All right, now you’re up to speed.
The most aggressive types of tumors are what cause “triple-negative breast cancer”. The worst part about this kind of BC is that even though only 15% of cases are triple-negative, it’s one of the most rapidly growing and it affects younger patients. The problem has been all along, that breast cancer (and ANY kind of cancer) cells “hide” from the immune systems by messing with the outside of the cancer cells. In this work, researchers found that tumor stem cells are the main cause of immunotherapy resistance and THAT’S because these cells are invisible to the immune system, making immunotherapy ineffective.
Their “cloaking device” is a chemical called the LCOR factor. The cancer cell doesn’t produce enough of the LCOR factor for the immunoglobulins and the other lymph system cells to SEE them. And if they can’t SEE them, then there’s no way to kill something that’s in stealth mode because our chemotherapy can’t see cancer cells to kill them.
If our own, natural immune system can’t see them, then the chemotherapy drugs can’t see them to kill them, either.
While this isn’t a TREATMENT yet, the researchers, inspired by the technology used in the design of the vaccines that are taming COVID-19 are using a similar strategy to transport and deliver LCOR genes into tumor cells, in super tiny bag-like structures. These bags carry this LCOR gene as a message to the cell (the “message is called RNA). The cell takes the information and were shown to do so successfully. Once it gets into the cell, it triggers the RIGHT function, the cancer cell makes “too much” LCOR, and stands out like a neon green spray-painted beach ball – and the immunoglobulins and all the other germ-death cells attack. This would be one of the many treatments for preventing, managing, or treating different cancers and it would probably be used along with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted therapies to improve their effectiveness.
Remember, this isn’t a TREATMENT…yet…but it IS a promise!
Resources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317120351.htm, https://www.cancerresearch.org/immunotherapy/what-is-immunotherapy?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PWRBhDKARIsAPKHFGilSbHi2YI7CCJCwCqQDo4GvpK3WdPGtEAUBtR9n8wbY-hABOUPFvYaAuOpEALw_wcB, https://primaryimmune.org/immune-system-and-primary-immunodeficiency#:~:text=The%20cells%20of%20the%20immune%20system%20can%20be%20categorized%20as,%2C%20antibodies%2C%20and%20complement%20proteins.
Image: https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/bdbf594/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1333+0+0/resize/1200x800!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F39%2Ff0%2Fdf48dd224c8789e14f0b9adcd858%2Fdepositphotos-321601022-l-2015.jpg
The wbc’s that help the immunoglobulins are gathered in what are called “lymph nodes”. You find them alongside all of your joints, especially in your neck “I have swollen glands! I must be sick!), armpits, and groin – but also your inside elbow and knee joints, wrists, and ankles. That’s because that’s where you move and that pushes the lymph around your body.
Anyone who has had breast cancer surgery that has progressed to Stage 2 or higher, may have had lymph nodes surgically removed.
All right, now you’re up to speed.
The most aggressive types of tumors are what cause “triple-negative breast cancer”. The worst part about this kind of BC is that even though only 15% of cases are triple-negative, it’s one of the most rapidly growing and it affects younger patients. The problem has been all along, that breast cancer (and ANY kind of cancer) cells “hide” from the immune systems by messing with the outside of the cancer cells. In this work, researchers found that tumor stem cells are the main cause of immunotherapy resistance and THAT’S because these cells are invisible to the immune system, making immunotherapy ineffective.
Their “cloaking device” is a chemical called the LCOR factor. The cancer cell doesn’t produce enough of the LCOR factor for the immunoglobulins and the other lymph system cells to SEE them. And if they can’t SEE them, then there’s no way to kill something that’s in stealth mode because our chemotherapy can’t see cancer cells to kill them.
If our own, natural immune system can’t see them, then the chemotherapy drugs can’t see them to kill them, either.
While this isn’t a TREATMENT yet, the researchers, inspired by the technology used in the design of the vaccines that are taming COVID-19 are using a similar strategy to transport and deliver LCOR genes into tumor cells, in super tiny bag-like structures. These bags carry this LCOR gene as a message to the cell (the “message is called RNA). The cell takes the information and were shown to do so successfully. Once it gets into the cell, it triggers the RIGHT function, the cancer cell makes “too much” LCOR, and stands out like a neon green spray-painted beach ball – and the immunoglobulins and all the other germ-death cells attack. This would be one of the many treatments for preventing, managing, or treating different cancers and it would probably be used along with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted therapies to improve their effectiveness.
Remember, this isn’t a TREATMENT…yet…but it IS a promise!
Resources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317120351.htm, https://www.cancerresearch.org/immunotherapy/what-is-immunotherapy?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PWRBhDKARIsAPKHFGilSbHi2YI7CCJCwCqQDo4GvpK3WdPGtEAUBtR9n8wbY-hABOUPFvYaAuOpEALw_wcB, https://primaryimmune.org/immune-system-and-primary-immunodeficiency#:~:text=The%20cells%20of%20the%20immune%20system%20can%20be%20categorized%20as,%2C%20antibodies%2C%20and%20complement%20proteins.
Image: https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/bdbf594/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1333+0+0/resize/1200x800!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F39%2Ff0%2Fdf48dd224c8789e14f0b9adcd858%2Fdepositphotos-321601022-l-2015.jpg
