Breast Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Breast Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Impaired interferon signaling is a common immune defect in human cancer.

Critchley-Thorne RJ, Simons DL, Yan N, Miyahira AK, Dirbas FM, Johnson DL, Swetter SM, Carlson RW, Fisher GA, Koong A, Holmes S, Lee PP

Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

Immune dysfunction develops in patients with many cancer types and may contribute to tumor progression and failure of immunotherapy. Mechanisms underlying cancer-associated immune dysfunction are not fully understood. Efficient IFN signaling is critical to lymphocyte function; animals rendered deficient in IFN signaling develop cancer at higher rates. We hypothesized that altered IFN signaling may be a key mechanism of immune dysfunction common to cancer. To address this, we assessed the functional responses to IFN in peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with 3 major cancers: breast cancer, melanoma, and gastrointestinal cancer. Type-I IFN (IFN-alpha)-induced signaling was reduced in T cells and B cells from all 3 cancer-patient groups compared to healthy controls. Type-II IFN (IFN-gamma)-induced signaling was reduced in B cells from all 3 cancer patient groups, but not in T cells or natural killer cells. Impaired-IFN signaling was equally evident in stage II, III, and IV breast cancer patients, and downstream functional defects in T cell activation were identified. Taken together, these findings indicate that defects in lymphocyte IFN signaling arise in patients with breast cancer, melanoma, and gastrointestinal cancer, and these defects may represent a common cancer-associated mechanism of immune dysfunction.

Published 5 June 2009 in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106(22): 9010-5.
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