'Coronal structures' around breast tumors may hinder cancer treatment

A "corona structure" around breast tumors in overweight and obese patients may hinder their response to treatment, new research from the University of Southampton has fou.

These new findings could potentially be used to improve personalized therapy for patients with HER2-positive overexpressing breast canc.

Adipose tissue, or body fat, is an important component of healthy human breasts, but a high body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of breast canc.

In patients with a high body mass index, increased fat around the breasts can lead to the accumulation of inflammatory immune cells (called macrophages) in the breast fat tiss.

How these crown structures continue to influence breast cancer progression and response to treatment is largely unkno.

The research team, led by Pr.

Scientific Reports published their resear.

They then went on to identify a potential molecular biomarker, called CD32B, on the surface of these crown structures of macrophag.

Stephen Beers, Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Southampton, said: "These findings will be of interest to clinicians and researchers involved in breast cancer treatment, as they may be used to develop personalised treatments for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer overexpressi.

"Physicians, for example, would know that patients with higher BMI and coronal structural markers respond less well to trastuzumab thera.

"On the other hand, this study highlights how effective trastuzumab therapy is in patients who don't have this mark.

The research team is now looking for ways to alter the behavior of these coronary structures to improve response to breast cancer treatme.

Reference: “Prognostic significance of crown-like structures to trastuzumab response in patients with primary invasive HER2+ breast carcinoma” 24 May 2022, Scientific Report.