Human breast cancer liver metastasis analyzed by multispectral fluorescence to observe tumors cells and various immune cell populations (cytotoxic, helper, and suppressive T cells and macrophages).
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Why Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis?
Why Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis?
Late-stage metastatic breast cancer remains incurable. The approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) demonstrates that immunotherapies may be an effective approach to decrease breast cancer mortalities. However, over half of metastatic breast cancer patients develop metastasis to the liver, a site that often responds poorly to immunotherapy. Despite high prevalence and mortality rates, little is known about why breast cancer liver metastases are unresponsive to immunotherapy.
How do we study Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis?
How do we study Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis?
The Williams lab uses a combination of animal and human models to better understand mechanistic interactions between metastatic breast cancer cells and the unique microenvironment of the liver. This analysis includes using bulk, single cell, metabolomic, and spatial profiling techniques on human breast cancer liver metastasis specimens. The resulting datasets will be leveraged to identify pathways that may be responsible for supporting immune suppression at this metastatic site. These pathways will be examined in mouse models of breast cancer liver metastasis to evaluate whether therapeutic targeting enhances anti-tumor immunity. We also plan to develop human models systems to study interactions between liver metastases and tissue resident and infiltrating immune cells.
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