Study of immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and therapeutic strategy in breast cancer

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24591925
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General surgery
• Research Institution: Kurume University
• Principal Investigator: SEKI Naoko 久留米大学, 医学部, 講師 (40226634)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TOH Uhi 久留米大学, 医学部, 講師 (60268901) ; FUJII Teruhiko 久留米大学, 医学部, 准教授 (50199288) ; KAGE Masayoshi 久留米大学病院, 教授 (80148840)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 癌 / 免疫学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cancer testis (CT)-antigens were expressed in a large proportion of triple negative (TN)- and ALDH-1 positive breast cancer specimens.
NY-ESO-1, MAGE-A10, and MAGE-C1 antigens were immunohistochemically expressed in 6%, 15%, and 12% of patients with primary invasive breast carcinoma, respectively. NY-ESO-1 and MAGE-A10 were preferentially expressed in TN or estrogen receptor negative breast cancers (p<0.05). ALDH-1 expression, which have been reported as predictive marker of cancer stem cells in terms of resistance to chemotherapy, was observed in 22% of tumor specimens, and was most prevalent in the TN breast cancers (p<0.001). Moreover, 41% of ALDH-1 positive specimens were accompanied with expression of any of CT-antigens, some of which showed concomitant expression of CT-antigens and ALDH-1.
Because of the limited therapeutic modalities for these phenotypes, significance of CT-antigens expressions should be further studied for beneficial immunotherapy in breast cancer patients.

Free Research Field

腫瘍免疫学