Breast cancer affects 12.4% of women in the United States and is the second commonest cause of death from cancer in women. The limitations of current treatments for invasive breast cancer require new approaches to be tested. Here, we harness one of the body’s natural defense mechanisms against cancer (immune cells) to eliminate breast tumors. Recent studies have successfully redirected these immune cells against blood cancers, but solid tumors including breast cancers are more complex, as they are surrounded by many kinds of supporting cells that create physical and chemical barriers to the tumor. These support cells can block therapies using immune cells. However, as the support cells surro...

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Breast cancer affects 12.4% of women in the United States and is the second commonest cause of death from cancer in women. The limitations of current treatments for invasive breast cancer require new approaches to be tested. Here, we harness one of the body’s natural defense mechanisms against cancer (immune cells) to eliminate breast tumors. Recent studies have successfully redirected these immune cells against blood cancers, but solid tumors including breast cancers are more complex, as they are surrounded by many kinds of supporting cells that create physical and chemical barriers to the tumor. These support cells can block therapies using immune cells. However, as the support cells surrounding solid tumors are distinguishable from normal, healthy cells, it is possible to use immune cells to target them directly. Therefore, we propose to engineer specialized immune cells to simultaneously target cancer cells directly and the cells that support breast tumors. We will specifically target a cell type called cancer-associated fibroblasts, which can form a kind of wall around the tumor and are responsible for both helping the cancer grow and making it resistant to immune therapy. Therefore, we hypothesize that blocking these cancer-supporting cells using our customized immune cells should eliminate not only the support cells but also the cancer itself by enabling immune cells to infiltrate the tumor and kill cancer cells directly. If successful against breast cancer, the treatment tested here could also be used against other kinds of cancers where cancer-associated fibroblasts play a role.

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