Titles and Affiliations
Hematology-Oncology Fellow
Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation
Research Area
Targeting immune cells to prevent breast cancer from spreading to the brain.
Impact
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, and metastasis to distant organs is the leading cause of death from the disease. The brain is a common site of spread, associated with the poorest outcomes, with 30-50% of patients with metastatic breast cancer eventually developing brain metastasis. It’s not fully understood how breast cancer spreads to the brain, but growing evidence suggests that communication between cancer cells and the surrounding environment in the brain may play an important role. Dr. To’s lab has found that activating a receptor called PDGFRβ on brain support cells leads to increased brain metastasis in preclinical models, and that these tumors contain large numbers of immune cells called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), which are known to weaken the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. Dr. To hypothesizes that PDGFRβ activation may help breast cancer spread to the brain by increasing the number of MDSCs.
What’s Next
For her Conquer Cancer research supported by BCRF, Dr. To will first study how MDSCs are recruited to the brain, then test whether lowering their numbers with a drug can reduce the growth of brain metastases in preclinical models. The team also predicts that decreasing MDSC levels will strengthen the body’s immune response to cancer, so they will combine the drug with immunotherapy to see if the two treatments improve results in their preclinical models. This research aims to build a foundation of evidence to support a future clinical trial testing drugs that target MDSCs in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Biography
Briana To, DO, PhD is a second-year hematology-oncology fellow in the Physician-Scientist Training Program at The Ohio State University. She earned her DO/PhD from Michigan State University, where her graduate research focused on the role of transcription factor E2F5 in mammary gland development and tumor progression. Her current research investigates how stromal cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells contribute to breast cancer brain metastasis.
