Yibin Kang, PhD

Targeting metastatic breast cancer at the nexus of cancer progression and immune response.

Impact

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC)—when breast cancer spreads to other organs—is incurable and responsible for the majority of breast cancer deaths. Dr. Kang and his team identified a protein, metadherin (MTDH), that is generated by many breast tumors and its presence predicts poor outcome for patients. The team found that MTDH promotes both metastasis and chemo-resistance in cancer cells and helps tumors evade the immune system, making it a promising target for therapy. Dr. Kang’s team will explore this further to see if blocking MTDH could help promote an anti-tumor response by the immune system. The findings from this research may pave the way toward a new immunotherapy approach for metastatic breast cancer.

Progress Thus Far

The team developed a drug to target MTDH and found that it dramatically inhibits breast cancer progression and metastasis by enhancing immune cell infiltration into laboratory tumor models. The team also tested their MTDH drug in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy, a type of immunotherapy, and the two worked well together to suppress breast cancer progression. Recently, the team discovered that MTDH facilitates tumor cell escape from anti-tumor immune response through regulation of T cells, a type of cancer fighting immune cell. Furthermore, this regulatory effect is contingent upon MTDH being in both T cells and host cells.

What’s next

In the coming year, Dr. Kang will explore metabolic regulators of T cell function, which in turn can suppress the immune response to metastatic breast cancer. The findings from Dr. Kang’s research may provide novel insights into regulation of the immune system in response to the growth and spread of metastatic breast cancer and pave the way for a new immunotherapy approach for advanced disease.