Breast cancer: a new strategy to remove the tumor

Researchers from Inserm and CNRS, working on breast cancer tumors, showed specific blood vessels. Called "HEV", these particular vessels, by promoting access of killer lymphocytes, white blood cell defense, to cancer cells, could be used to destroy these tumors effectively.

Scientists were already aware of the role of natural killer cells. They aim to identify cancer cells in the body and destroy them. However, the number of killer cells in contact with the tumor must be particularly high to completely eliminate the disease. The present study was therefore to this day to understand how cells could reach to eradicate tumors.
The study authors also found that patients with breast cancer were more likely to heal when the tumor contained a large number of blood vessels "HEV". "The presence of HEV vessels in a tumor would be a good prognostic factor", say the scientists.
Further studies are already planned to confirm these work on a larger number of patients, and determine the role of vessels in the ovarian and colon or in melanomas.
"In the longer term goal is to increase the amount of HEV vessels in tumors and / or make them appear in tumors that do not have to allow a massive recruitment of killer cells to eradicate cancer cells, "concluded the principal authors of the study.