The role of immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment in Hispanic/Latino patients with breast cancer

PROJECT SUMMARY: Disparities in cancer outcomes in certain patient populations such as Hispanic/Latino (H/L) patients, are rooted in part in the lack of understanding of biologic factors and mechanisms of response or resistance to novel therapeutics. Although most patients express a willingness to participate in clinical research, only approximately

8% of adult cancer patients enroll in cancer clinical trials, and the percentage of minorities participating in clinical trials, overall, is much lower when compared to the general population of the U.S. H/L’s, and other minority groups, for example, continue to be under-represented in clinical trials. The under-representation of minority

groups in cancer research contributes to disparities in cancer care and outcomes by failing to provide the evidence that clinicians and scientists need to safely treat and discover new treatments for minority patients with cancer. This project enables an integrative analysis of demographic, and clinical data combined with multi-omics

approaches using blood samples and tissue from breast cancer patients to elucidate the differences in immune response to breast cancer in patients of H/L race. Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is a type of immunotherapy that has revolutionized treatment for many patients with breast cancer. However, complex immunosuppressive

tumor microenvironments (TMEs) within breast cancers render them less responsive to ICIs and present therapeutic obstacles. Specifically, recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) prohibit T-cell activation and infiltration which leads to successful treatment with this class of therapeutics. We aim to

characterize differences in the suppressive TME by race and tumor subtype. Understanding these differences will affect development of novel treatment combinations & strategies. The identification of patient populations with higher risk disease, most likely to benefit from ICIs is of equal importance to understanding of scientific

mechanisms. H/L patients have a higher percentage of young women (