Project description:The immune system's role in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer is poorly understood. A population-based cohort of 428 breast cancer patients with clinical and molecular data was analyzed to assess how immune biomarkers can inform treatment decisions. Tumor-intrinsic immune responsiveness and local immune infiltration were quantified, and epithelial cell states were derived using EcoTyper. The interaction between ProliferativeIndex and Immunescore predicted risk of local recurrence in ER-positive tumors (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.36-0.88, p=0.012). EcoTyper identified two epithelial cell states, S04 and S05, with distinct immunomodulatory properties. S04 tumors showed higher proliferation, enrichment for M1 macrophages, CD8 effector T-cells, and plasma cells, alongside hypomethylation of immune-related pathways and hypermethylation of the PI3K signaling pathway. In contrast, S05-enriched tumors were associated with fibroblast activation, immune exclusion, and enrichment for glycosylation-related pathways. These findings suggest that epithelial cell states shape immune responsiveness in ER-positive breast cancer and may inform biomarker-driven treatment strategies.
Project description:Estrogen receptor (ER) signaling–dependent cancer cell growth is one of the major features of ER-positive breast cancer (BC). Inhibition of ER function is a standard and effective treatment for ER-positive tumors; however, ~20% of patients with ER-positive BC experience early or late recurrence. In this study, we examined intertumor heterogeneity from an epigenetic perspective based on the hypothesis that the intrinsic difference in epigenetic states around ER signaling pathway underlies endocrine therapy resistance. We profiled chromatin accessibility data from 42 BC samples, including 35 ER-positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative and 7 triple-negative tumors, identifying a subgroup of ER-positive BCs with a distinctive chromatin accessibility pattern including reduced accessibility to ER-responsive elements (EREs). The same subgroup was also observed in The Cancer Genome Atlas BC cohort. Despite the reduced accessibility to EREs, the expression of ER and potential ER target genes were not decreased in these tumors. Our findings highlight the existence of a subset of ER-positive BCs with unchanged ER expression but reduced EREs accessibility that cannot be distinguished by conventional immunostaining for ER. Future studies should determine whether these tumors are associated with resistance to endocrine therapy.
Project description:Organoid cultures offer a powerful technology to investigate many different aspects of development, physiology, and pathology of diverse tissues. Unlike standard tissue culture of primary breast epithelial cells, breast organoids preserve the epithelial lineages and architecture of the normal tissue. However, existing organoid culture methods are tedious, difficult to scale, and do not robustly retain estrogen receptor (ER) expression and responsiveness in long-term culture. Here, we describe a modified culture method to generate and maintain organoids as suspension cultures. This method improves organoid growth and uniformity over the traditional Matrigel dome embedding method while still maintaining the fidelity of the three major epithelial lineages. Using this adopted method, we are able to isolate and culture hormone sensing (HS) cells alone that retain ER responsiveness upon estrogen stimulation in long-term culture. This culture system presents a valuable opportunity to study the events involved in initiation and evolution of ER-positive breast cancer.
Project description:Adjuvant tamoxifen is a valid treatment option for women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. However, up to 40% of patients experience distant or local recurrence or die. MicroRNAs have been suggested to be important prognosticators in breast cancer. This study aims to identify microRNAs with the potential to predict tamoxifen response. We performed a global microRNA screen in primary tumours of six matched pairs of postmenopausal, ER-positive breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen, who were either recurrence free or had developed a recurrence. Patients were treated at the Robert Bosch Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany, between 1986 and 2005. Total RNA from FFPE tissue from 12 postmenopausal patients with ER-positive breast cancer (6 patients with and 6 patients without recurrence) was extracted. Hybridisation of biotin-labelled RNA was performed on Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA_2.0 Arrays.