Immune system cells called macrophages play an unexpected role in the complicated connection between obesity and cancer. The findings provide a mechanistic explanation for how obesity can contribute to both increased cancer risk and enhanced responses to immunotherapy.
Immune system cells called macrophages play an unexpected role in the complicated connection between obesity and cancer, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center-led research team has discovered.
Postdoctoral fellow Jackie Bader, PhD, led the studies to examine the influence of obesity on cancer and to explore this"obesity paradox" -- that obesity can contribute to cancer progression but also improve response to immunotherapy. "We were very fortunate to have collaborators that provided us with samples from the same patients before and after weight loss that reinforced the findings from our mouse models," Bader said.
"I've always been 'team macrophage,'" Bader said."Macrophages are thought of as being like a garbage truck: They clean up the mess. But they have a huge spectrum of activity to enhance the immune response, and they're more plastic and manipulatable than other immune cells, which makes them really interesting."
"It could be that the greater the proportion of PD-1-expressing macrophages a tumor has, the better the response to immunotherapy will be," Rathmell said.
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