Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive subtypes of breast cancer and is associated with extremely poor survival. While immunotherapy hasn’t been very effective against TNBC thus far, Dr. Antoni Celia-Terrassa is working to change that, by targeting a specialized cell type within these tumors. Known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), these cells can resist standard treatments and eventually regenerate entire tumors over time. As a result, understanding their behavior better will be crucial to improving patient survival. Specifically, Celia-Terrassa aims to determine how a certain pathway enables these CSCs to escape the immune system’s detection. Then, he plans to develop therapeutic strategies that target this pathway and make CSCs vulnerable to attack by immune cells. Ultimately, this approach could then be combined with existing immunotherapies to enhance immune elimination of TNBC and better protect patients against potential relapse.
Projects and Grants
LCOR orchestrates the differential IFN-a response and immunological properties of triple-negative breast cancer stem cells.
Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM, Spain) | Breast Cancer | 2018
Publications
LCOR mediates interferon-independent tumor immunogenicity and responsiveness to immune-checkpoint blockade in triple-negative breast cancer
Iván Pérez-Núñez et al | Nature Cancer | 2022 | DOI
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