The study found that SIRPα, a protein best known for regulating immune cells, also appears to act inside triple-negative breast cancer cells. In preclinical models, higher levels of the protein made the cancer cells more likely to spread and weakened the brain’s immune response against them.
The findings were recently published in Neuro-Oncology.
Triple-negative breast cancer, or TNBC, is an aggressive form of breast cancer that lacks three common markers used to guide treatment. It has a greater tendency than many other breast cancers to spread to the brain, where treatment options remain limited and outcomes are often poor.