Gravekamp Claudia, Sypniewska Roza, Hoflack Lieve
Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 14960 Omicron Drive, San Antonio, TX 78245, USA.
Mech Ageing Dev. 2004 Feb;125(2):125-7. doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2003.11.012.
Cancer is an age-related disease and with the graying of the society, there is an increasing need to optimize cancer management and therapy for application in elderly patients. Cancer vaccines that can be applied in both prevention and therapy are potentially less toxic than chemotherapy or radiation and could, therefore, be especially suitable for older more frail cancer patients. In this study, we used syngeneic metastatic (4TO7) and non-metastatic (64pT) breast tumor models to obtain valuable information on the potential usefulness of MAGE-encoding cancer vaccines in metastatic and non-metastatic breast cancer at old age. First, we tested a mouse Mage-b DNA vaccine in young mice and found a significant preventive effect on the development of metastases. However, little effect was observed on primary breast tumors. Second, we studied tumor progression in relation to aging and found significant smaller tumors in old compared to young mice. This was associated with an increase in the percentage of CD8(+) T cells in the inguinal lymph nodes at the site of the tumor at old age. These findings suggest that breast cancer immunotherapeutic approaches could be a valid strategy even in elderly patients.
癌症是一种与年龄相关的疾病，随着社会的老龄化，越来越需要优化癌症管理和治疗方法，以便应用于老年患者。可用于预防和治疗的癌症疫苗可能比化疗或放疗毒性更小，因此可能特别适合年龄较大、身体更虚弱的癌症患者。在本研究中，我们使用同基因转移性（4TO7）和非转移性（64pT）乳腺肿瘤模型，以获取有关编码MAGE的癌症疫苗在老年转移性和非转移性乳腺癌中潜在效用的有价值信息。首先，我们在年轻小鼠中测试了一种小鼠Mage-b DNA疫苗，发现其对转移的发生有显著的预防作用。然而，对原发性乳腺肿瘤的影响很小。其次，我们研究了肿瘤进展与衰老的关系，发现老年小鼠的肿瘤明显小于年轻小鼠。这与老年时肿瘤部位腹股沟淋巴结中CD8(+) T细胞百分比的增加有关。这些发现表明，即使在老年患者中，乳腺癌免疫治疗方法也可能是一种有效的策略。
