Dr. Maxime Meylan is exploring how the spatial organization of different cells within breast cancers affects the infiltration of immune cells and, consequently, the immune system’s ability to eliminate tumors.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly difficult type of breast cancer to treat, so Dr. Meylan is working to improve our understanding of the factors that influence treatment responsiveness. Dr. Meylan’s study has two main parts. First, he is using advanced imaging techniques to study the different types of tumor cells and immune cells in TNBC tumors, and how they interact with each other, to understand why some immune cells are excluded from the tumor and why others are present.
Second, he is studying how treatment with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy changes the behavior of tumors in fifty patients with newly diagnosed TNBC. By comparing biopsies taken before and during treatment, Dr. Meylan aims to identify changes in the tumor that are associated with treatment response or lack of response.
This study will help to understand how TNBC tumors change during treatment and may help to identify new ways to treat this difficult-to-treat cancer.
Projects and Grants
Deciphering tumor spatial patterns governing immune exclusion in TNBC
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | Breast Cancer | 2023 | Kai Wucherpfennig MD, PhD
