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Discovery of a new marker to identify myeloid cells associated with metastatic breast tumours

Abstract

Background: Myeloid cells play an essential role in cancer metastasis. The phenotypic diversity of these cells during cancer development has attracted great interest; however, their functional heterogeneity and plasticity have limited their role as prognostic markers and therapeutic targets.

Methods: To identify markers associated with myeloid cells in metastatic tumours, we compared transcriptomic data from immune cells sorted from metastatic and non-metastatic mammary tumours grown in BALB/cJ mice. To assess the translational relevance of our in vivo findings, we assessed human breast cancer biopsies and evaluated the association between arginase 1 protein expression in breast cancer tissues with tumour characteristics and patient outcomes.

Results: Among the differentially expressed genes, arginase 1 (ARG1) showed a unique expression pattern in tumour-infiltrating myeloid cells that correlated with the metastatic capacity of the tumour. Even though ARG1-positive cells were found almost exclusively inside the metastatic tumour, ARG1 protein was also present in the plasma. In human breast cancer biopsies, the presence of ARG1-positive cells was strongly correlated with high-grade proliferating tumours, poor prognosis, and low survival.

Conclusion: Our findings highlight the potential use of ARG1-positive myeloid cells as an independent prognostic marker to evaluate the risk of metastasis in breast cancer patients.
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Category

Academic article

Client

  • Research Council of Norway (RCN) / 314984
  • Research Council of Norway (RCN) / 223255

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Ansooya Avinash Bokil
  • Mathieu Børkja
  • Camilla Izabel Wolowczyk
  • Apsana Lamsal
  • Wenche Slettahjell Prestvik
  • Unni Nonstad
  • Kristine Pettersen
  • Sonja Benedikte Andersen
  • Anna M. Bofin
  • Geir Bjørkøy
  • Sjoerd Hak
  • Miriam Soledad Giambelluca

Affiliation

  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • SINTEF Industry / Biotechnology and Nanomedicine
  • UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Year

2023

Published in

Cancer Cell International

ISSN

1475-2867

Publisher

BioMed Central (BMC)

Volume

23

Issue

1

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