A study from Duke Cancer Institute found that estrogens not only help breast cancer with receptors grow but also fuel cancers without receptors, including triple-negative breast cancer. Estrogens weaken the immune system’s ability to fight tumors and make immunotherapy less effective. However, based on patient data and mouse experiments, anti-estrogen drugs were shown to reverse this effect and help immunotherapy work better.
Dr. Donald McDonnell from Duke University said, “immunotherapy has improved treatment for triple-negative breast cancer.” His team’s goal is to make these therapies work even better.
Researchers found a simple way to enhance immunotherapy’s effectiveness for breast cancer and other cancers, such as adenoma and colon cancer. Their research focused on eosinophils, a type of white blood cell linked to better outcomes in several cancers. The Duke team found that estrogen reduces the number of eosinophils, which help fight tumors.
This leads to faster tumor growth in some cancers, like melanoma and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. However, anti-estrogen therapies improved immunotherapy , slowing tumor growth. The findings suggest that blocking estrogen could boost cancer treatment.
They plan to test an anti-estrogen drug, lasofoxifene, in future trials. Journal reference:.