The role of NK cells in Breast Cancer

Hooijsma, Annelien (2021) The role of NK cells in Breast Cancer. Master's Thesis / Essay, Biomedical Sciences.

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Abstract

Breast cancer belongs to one of the most frequent malignancies in women, whereby metastasis is the major cause of death among these patients. In breast cancer, NK cells eliminate tumour cells by their cytotoxicity as well as enhancing cross-priming of cytotoxic lymphocytes and Th1 polarization of CD4+ T cells. However, upon disease progression, tumour cells modulate NK cells leading to decreased expression of activation receptors and an increase in inhibitory receptors, resulting in impaired detection and targeting of tumour cells. NK cells can be divided into main subsets CD56+CD16- and CD56-CD16+, whereby subset CD56+ covers most of the NK cell population in breast cancer. Since the presence of this subset showed either an improved or deteriorated overall survival, more insight is necessary regarding NK cell subsets in breast cancer. Despite the different subsets, NK cells should be considered for immunotherapy focusing on improvement of the mediated immune response. Inhibitors can be used to dampen inhibitory signals, and stimulatory agonists for activation receptors stimulate NK cell functionality. Also, increased expression of TGFβ and soluble NKG2D, detrimental for NK cells, could be neutralized. For developing optimal therapies, personalized treatments, using CAR-NK cells would be interesting due to the heterogeneity of NK cells within the tumours and between patients. Importantly, for treatment development interaction with other immune cells should also be considered.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay)
Supervisor name:	Daemen, C.A.H.H.
Degree programme:	Biomedical Sciences
Thesis type:	Master's Thesis / Essay
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2021 10:01
Last Modified:	30 Nov 2021 10:01
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/26324

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