How inflammation shapes the tumor's immune environment
Investigating the Genesis of Tumor Immune Microenvironment (TIME) as a function of Inflammation
Seeing if inflammation causes some breast cancers to become immune‑poor ('cold') and whether short-term aspirin can stop that for people at risk of breast cancer.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Francisco NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Francisco, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11234301 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will compare tumor samples from breast cancers that developed after radiation and other risk settings to learn why some tumors lack T cells and are rich in immunosuppressive signals like TGFβ and COX2. They will use mouse models that mimic human breast cancer risk to test how systemic inflammation drives a cold tumor immune microenvironment. The team will test whether a brief course of aspirin before tumor development can prevent immune‑cold tumors in those models and will examine immune and molecular pathways involved. Findings will be used to link human tumor patterns with the lab experiments to point toward prevention or treatment strategies.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People most relevant to this work include those at higher breast cancer risk such as survivors of prior chest radiation (e.g., Hodgkin lymphoma survivors), older or obese individuals, and people with genetic risk factors like BRCA1.
Not a fit: Patients with cancers unrelated to breast biology or those with advanced, rapidly progressing metastatic disease are unlikely to gain direct benefit from this mechanistic research in the short term.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could point to simple prevention or treatment strategies—for example short-term anti-inflammatory approaches—that help tumors stay immune‑active and improve responses to immunotherapy.
How similar studies have performed: Previous human tissue analyses and animal studies have linked TGFβ/COX2-driven inflammation to immune‑cold tumors and shown that anti‑inflammatory approaches can alter tumor immunity in models, but preventive use of aspirin in people for this purpose is still novel.
Where this research is happening
San Francisco, United States
- University of California, San Francisco — San Francisco, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Barcellos-Hoff, Mary Helen — University of California, San Francisco
- Study coordinator: Barcellos-Hoff, Mary Helen
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.