The autors of this study (from left to right) Rute Salvador, Bruna Correira, Guadalupe Cabral, António Jacinto and Diana Saraiva
Research done at CEDOC reveals that low-density neutrophils (LDN) are increased in breast cancer patients, particularly those with poor response to chemotherapy and metastases.
This study comes from António Jacinto's group, Tissue Repair and Inflammation, with Guadalupe Cabral as the corresponding author of the article published in November in the magazine Oncotarget.
“LDN inhibit the activity of T lymphocytes through several ways”, says Guadalupe Cabral about the direct and indirect ways of how LDN allow tumour progression by blocking the action of the effector cells of the immune system. “These mechanisms are described as being immunosuppressive and can influence lymphocytes. They are more studied in mice, but it makes sense that they are also involved here.”
The study suggests that a higher incidence of LDN in patients who are unreceptive to neoadjuvant chemotherapy may become a marker for the use of alternative therapies in these patients, sparing them from ineffective treatments.
Read more about Guadalupe Cabral's investigation into breast cancer in this #scicomm feature here and about this Oncotarget article entitled “Circulating low density neutrophils of breast cancer patients are associated with their worse prognosis due to impairment of T cell responses” here.