New imaging technique reveals why immune cells fails to keep breast cancer in check

University of California, San Francisco researchers have used a novel breast cancer imaging technique in mice to uncover new hints to why the human immune system fails to attack tumors and keep cancer from getting out of control. The findings conclude that the body’s natural defenses often trip over themselves on their way to attacking a tumor. While the immune cells should be able to make their way to the tumor to shrink it, a separate set of healthy cells already in contact with the tumor form a barrier around it, keeping the immune cells out. According to principal investigator Matthew Krummel, future immunotherapy cancer treatments could be made more effective on their own or in combination with other drugs if researchers can find a way to enhance the ability of T cells to break this tumor barrier. The researchers developed a way to produce different fluorescent-colored dyes in breast cancer tumors and the various cells around them, then used a microscope to track immune cells.