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Publication

CANCER IN OLDER PERSONS - IMPACT OF AGE ON TUMOR BIOLOGY AND IMMUNE RESPONSE

Book - Dissertation

Apart from tumor characteristics, host factors play a pivotal role in the treatment of cancer. Even though it has been acknowledged since long that host immunity impacts tumor development and progression, extensive research into its prognostic and predictive value in BC has only been initiated more recently. Particularly, the role of the tumor immune infiltrate in the less immunogenic, but frequently diagnosed luminal breast tumors still remains largely unknown. Luminal BC actually is the most frequently diagnosed BC subtype, especially in older patients. As of yet, the tumor immune infiltrate in BC has mainly been studied via evaluating sTILs percentages. It might be more relevant, though, to assess the full immune contexture i.e. abundance, composition, functionality, and spatial distribution of the tumor immune infiltrate. BC is an age-related disease, hence age represents another crucial host factor, which has a substantial impact on BC biology and has been associated with inflammation, deterioration of immune functions (immunosenescence) and clinical frailty. Despite this, and despite the fact that the older population is rapidly growing, older patients with cancer are still largely underrepresented in clinical trials. Although enormous advances have been made in the BC field in general, the older patient population thus remains underexplored, making elderly cancer management very challenging for oncologists. The main objective of this PhD project was to obtain insights in the tumor immune landscape in luminal B-like tumors in relation to patient age and frailty, and to improve our scientific knowledge on the interplay between aging, immunity and cancer. The framework for the project was the IMAGE study, which included patients of different ages with luminal B-like BC.
Publication year:2021
Accessibility:Closed