Triple-negative breast cancer is known as one of the most aggressive and hardest types of breast cancer to treat. It grows faster than many other cancers and often spreads before it is found.
Unlike other breast cancers, it does not have the hormone receptors that many common treatments rely on. This means doctors have fewer tools to fight it.
Even when treatments work at first, this cancer often comes back stronger and more resistant. Because of this, researchers around the world have been searching for better and more precise ways to fight it.
A new study published in Breast Cancer Research offers a promising direction. Scientists at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have created a special antibody that blocks several different ways triple-negative breast cancer helps itself survive and grow.
In early tests, this antibody slowed the growth of tumors, reduced the spread of cancer to the lungs, and helped the immune system fight back more strongly. Surprisingly, it even killed cancer cells that were no longer responding to standard chemotherapy drugs.
The focus of this study is a protein called SFRP2. This protein helps cancer grow by creating new blood vessels, protecting cancer cells from dying, and weakening the immune cells that should be attacking the tumor.
Dr. Nancy Klauber-DeMore has spent nearly twenty years studying this protein. Her work showed that SFRP2 plays many roles in helping cancer survive, and this inspired the creation of an antibody that could block the protein and stop these cancer-supporting actions.
In this new study, researchers examined human triple-negative breast tumors and discovered something important. SFRP2 was not only found inside tumor cells themselves but also in nearby immune cells.
These included lymphocytes and macrophages, two types of immune cells that normally help the body fight disease. This finding showed that SFRP2 has a bigger influence than originally thought, affecting not only the cancer but also the environment around the cancer.
Macrophages can behave in two main ways. M1 macrophages help fight cancer, while M2 macrophages do the opposite and help cancer grow. In triple-negative breast cancer, macrophages often shift toward the harmful M2 type.
But when treated with the SFRP2 antibody, macrophages in the study released important immune signals that pushed them toward the helpful M1 state. This shift happened even in mice whose cancer had already spread, suggesting that the antibody could retrain the immune system even in advanced disease.
The antibody did something else important. It helped “wake up” T-cells, which are powerful immune cells that often become tired and stop working well in cancer.
After exposure to the antibody, these T-cells became more active and better at fighting tumor cells. This could make the immune system stronger and may even improve responses to other treatments like immunotherapy.
In animal models of advanced triple-negative breast cancer, mice treated with the antibody developed far fewer lung tumors than untreated mice. This is especially meaningful because lung spread is common and very dangerous in this cancer. Another advantage of the antibody is its precision.
It concentrated inside the tumors but did not collect in healthy tissue. This is different from many standard chemotherapy drugs, which damage both cancer cells and healthy cells and often cause strong side effects.
The researchers also tested the antibody against cancer cells that had already become resistant to doxorubicin, a widely used drug for triple-negative breast cancer. These resistant cells still died when treated with the antibody, suggesting that it could help patients whose cancers no longer respond to chemotherapy.
Overall, the study shows that SFRP2 plays a major role in tumor growth, immune suppression, and treatment resistance. By blocking SFRP2, the antibody weakens the cancer, strengthens the immune system, and works even when standard treatments fail.
The antibody has been licensed to Innova Therapeutics, which plans to develop it for clinical trials. It has also received FDA designations that support its development for other cancers, including osteosarcoma.
These early results are promising, but more studies are needed before the treatment can be used in patients. Still, the findings suggest a new direction for treating triple-negative breast cancer. The research offers hope that one day patients may have a treatment that not only attacks the tumor but also restores the body’s ability to fight cancer naturally.
If you care about breast cancer, please read studies about how eating patterns help ward off breast cancer, and soy and plant compounds may prevent breast cancer recurrence.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how your grocery list can help guard against caner, and a simple way to fight aging and cancer.
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