Post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy & inflammatory response in breast cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Semi-quantitative assessment of post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy-induced inflammatory, and stromal response and its relation to residual cancer burden.
IRAS ID
172494
Contact name
Shonali Natu
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Does chemotherapy before surgery change or enhance the inflammatory response or inflammatory markers in patients with breast cancer?
Patients with breast cancer are often offered chemotherapy before surgery (known as neoadjuvant chemotherapy) to reduce the size of the tumour. There are several criteria that are currently used to decide the most appropriate treatment for the patient. The more criteria that are used, the better estimation of prognosis can be made and more appropriate management can be undertaken.
It is believed that chemotherapy works by having a direct effect on the tumour and by stimulating the body to produce cells that help to shrink the tumour. In this study, we are looking at the number and type of these cells, and whether they change following chemotherapy and whether this change could be used as a marker of prognosis.
A protein named Programmed Death (PD) ligand has been implicated as a target for treatment in some other types of cancer (including lung and some skin cancers). In this study, we are assessing whether the expression of this protein changes following chemotherapy. If it were to change, this could lead to further research to assess whether this protein could be used as a target for treatment in the future.
This is a proof-of-principle study to assess the number and type of immune cells within and surrounding the tumour and to compare this to the residual cancer burden (a classification system only currently used in research) as well as the protein, PD-1, and to assess if any of these change following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
This study will take place at North Tees University Hospital, using patient tissue that has already been surgically removed and all treatment is complete. These patients gave consent at the time of surgery for their tissue to be used in research.REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0536
Date of REC Opinion
27 Aug 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion