Aggressive Breast Cancers in Black Patients May Be Related to Immune Factors

An elevated number of “exhausted,” nonfunctional T cells appears to be driving breast cancer tumors in patients of African descent to be more aggressive and hard-to-treat, according to new research from the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York.

This finding opens the door to treatment interventions that could help to eliminate the striking disparities in survival between Black and white patients with breast cancer.

• See “Aggressive Breast Cancers in Black Patients Related to Immune Factors, Roswell Park Team Reveals” on the Roswell Park website (January 5, 2021)
• See abstract of scientific paper “Breast Tumor Microenvironment in Black Women: A Distinct Signature of CD8+ T Cell Exhaustion” by Song Yao et al.