iScience: Revealthe relationship between immune cells and cancer risk!

July 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The immune system "monitors and blocks" the development of cancer, a view known as the Cancer Immune Alert, first proposed early in the last century.
since then, epidemiological studies have shown that immune system suppression increases the risk of cancer;
now, a study led by the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBELL) and the Catalunya Institute of Oncology (ICO) ProCURE project has identified genetic mutations that make people cancer-prone, representing changes in the immune system.
they analyzed 17 types of cancer, of which they found as many as 57 genetic variants that affect the body's defenses and are prone to cancer.
article, published in the journal iScience, represents another step forward in understanding the biology that causes cancer and opens the door to future risk analysis.
it also allows us to come up with new strategies to prevent it.
"The results suggest that the risk of cancer can be explained in part by changes in the number of immune cells," said Dr. Miquel Pujana, project leader and researcher at iScienceICO and IDIBELL.
If we know the effects of these genetic variants on the immune system, we can design new prevention strategies for patients at high risk of cancer by regulating the specific functions of the immune system cells.
"A particular link identified in this study is a link between changes in the lymphocyte protein SH2B3 gene and risk of breast cancer, especially in women at high risk of this type of cancer due to BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.
tissue chemistry studies confirm this fact, as changes in the SH2B3 gene are associated with a decrease in immune cell immersion in tumor tissue, which is a fundamental point in the exercise of function.
on the other hand, in the presence of this mutation, there are fewer lymphocytes in peripheral blood, and it is associated with the diagnosis of cancer at a younger age.
" these signs lead us to believe that the correct function of the SH2B3 gene plays a decisive role in cancer protection in women carrying the BRCA1/2 mutation, and when it is affected, pharmacological induction of the SH2B3 gene reduces the risk of cancer."
"The role of the immune system in the development of cancer The immune system identifies foreign microorganisms as "non-self" factors and provides a response to destroy these causative agents, playing a similar role in protecting the body from malignant tumors.
damaged DNA from cancer cells eventually leads to the production of abnormal proteins, or tumor antigens.
these abnormal tumor proteins label cancer cells as "non-self" cells.
the immune system can detect and kill cancer cells, but it is clear that cancer cells have their own mechanisms to avoid the immune response that usually blocks the development of malignant tumors.
when the immune system loses its surveillance function, tumor cells form tumors.
() References: Luis Palomero et al, Immune Cell Associates with Cancer Risk, iScience (2020).
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101296.