Obesity is a major public health challenge and is associated with a lower survival rate in breast cancer (BC) patients. Given substantial differences in breast cancer rates between racial and ethnic groups, obesity may also contribute to the long-standing and persistent racial and ethnic disparities in BC survival. Engleman’s lab recently discovered a molecular difference between obese and non-obese mice. Obese mice expressed higher levels of GPR65, an acid-sensing receptor, on tumor-associated macrophages, immune cells that can “eat” diseased and damaged cells. Moreover, tumors of obese mice grew much faster due to the immunosuppressive effects of this molecule. John and Engleman, through the support of the SCI Women’s Cancer Center Innovation Award, now plan to study the relationships between GPR65 expression and obesity. They will study tissue samples from a racially and ethnically diverse set of breast cancer patients diagnosed between 1995 and 2005. They will determine whether GPR65 is expressed in the breast tumor specimens of these patients, and assess whether expression varies by body mass index, race and ethnicity, clinical characteristics, and outcome (deceased vs. alive). The study will reveal whether the findings in mouse are also relevant in the human context, with the ultimate hope to use the findings to develop new breast cancer therapies.
Funding Opportunities
SCI Women’s Cancer Center Innovation Award
March 2024