The Immune Microenvironment of Breast Cancer Progression
1
Breast Cancer Risk and Prevention, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, 305 Grattan St, Melbourne, Victoria, VIC 3000, Australia
2
The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, VIC 3000, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Cancers 2019, 11(9), 1375; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11091375
Received: 5 July 2019 / Revised: 1 September 2019 / Accepted: 4 September 2019 / Published: 16 September 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metastatic Progression and Tumour Heterogeneity)
Inflammation is now recognized as a hallmark of cancer. Genetic changes in the cancer cell are accepted as the match that lights the fire, whilst inflammation is seen as the fuel that feeds the fire. Once inside the tumour, the immune cells secrete cytokines that kick-start angiogenesis to ferry in much-needed oxygen and nutrients that encourage the growth of tumours. There is now irrefutable data demonstrating that the immune contexture of breast tumours can influence growth and metastasis. A higher immune cell count in invasive breast cancer predicts prognosis and response to chemotherapy. We are beginning now to define the specific innate and adaptive immune cells present in breast cancer and their role not just in the progression of invasive disease, but also in the development of pre-invasive lesions and their transition to malignant tumours. This review article focusses on the immune cells present in early stage breast cancer and their relationship with the immunoediting process involved in tumour advancement.
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Keywords:
breast cancer; immune microenvironment; DCIS; ADH
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Tower, H.; Ruppert, M.; Britt, K. The Immune Microenvironment of Breast Cancer Progression. Cancers 2019, 11, 1375.
AMA Style
Tower H, Ruppert M, Britt K. The Immune Microenvironment of Breast Cancer Progression. Cancers. 2019; 11(9):1375.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTower, Helen; Ruppert, Meagan; Britt, Kara. 2019. "The Immune Microenvironment of Breast Cancer Progression" Cancers 11, no. 9: 1375.
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