| First Author | Gómez-Aleza C | Year | 2020 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 6335 |
| PubMed ID | 33303745 | Mgi Jnum | J:300989 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6504586 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-020-20138-8 |
| Citation | Gomez-Aleza C, et al. (2020) Inhibition of RANK signaling in breast cancer induces an anti-tumor immune response orchestrated by CD8+ T cells. Nat Commun 11(1):6335 |
| abstractText | Most breast cancers exhibit low immune infiltration and are unresponsive to immunotherapy. We hypothesized that inhibition of the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB (RANK) signaling pathway may enhance immune activation. Here we report that loss of RANK signaling in mouse tumor cells increases leukocytes, lymphocytes, and CD8(+) T cells, and reduces macrophage and neutrophil infiltration. CD8(+) T cells mediate the attenuated tumor phenotype observed upon RANK loss, whereas neutrophils, supported by RANK-expressing tumor cells, induce immunosuppression. RANKL inhibition increases the anti-tumor effect of immunotherapies in breast cancer through a tumor cell mediated effect. Comparably, pre-operative single-agent denosumab in premenopausal early-stage breast cancer patients from the Phase-II D-BEYOND clinical trial (NCT01864798) is well tolerated, inhibits RANK pathway and increases tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and CD8(+) T cells. Higher RANK signaling activation in tumors and serum RANKL levels at baseline predict these immune-modulatory effects. No changes in tumor cell proliferation (primary endpoint) or other secondary endpoints are observed. Overall, our preclinical and clinical findings reveal that tumor cells exploit RANK pathway as a mechanism to evade immune surveillance and support the use of RANK pathway inhibitors to prime luminal breast cancer for immunotherapy. |
