Development of novel immunotherapy against breast cancer through eliciting anti-tumor immunity and mechanism of cancer immune tolerance

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K17560
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 55010:General surgery and pediatric surgery-related
• Research Institution: Nagoya City University
• Principal Investigator: Mitsuo Terada 名古屋市立大学, 医薬学総合研究院(医学), 臨床研究医 (70847441)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 腫瘍免疫

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We identified an immune population that is a predictor of breast cancer prognosis by analyzing immune cells in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients. In addition, we found that an important molecule for antigen presentation, called HLA-DR, is expressed on breast cancer cell lines in experiments in which the breast cancer cell lines and human immune cells were cultured together. The expression of HLA-DR on breast cancer cells may be important for the immune population we identified to attack breast cancer cells and may play a role in the prognosis of breast cancer patients. In the future, breast cancer tissue will be used to further analyze how our identified cell populations are involved in anti-tumor immunity in the tumor environment.

Free Research Field

乳癌

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

乳癌の腫瘍免疫においてどのような免疫細胞が重要で、どのような免疫細胞が腫瘍細胞を攻撃しているのかはまだ明らかになっていないことが多い。これは腫瘍の種類や状態および宿主側の因子によっても変化すると考えられる。今回の我々の研究成果は、免疫の観点からの癌治療における個別化医療につながるものである。