Ludwig Lausanne study identifies potential combination therapy for brain metastases of breast cancer - Mirage News

OCTOBER 18, 2021, NEW YORK – A Ludwig Cancer Research study has identified and preclinically validated combination treatments for the brain metastases of breast cancer, a common and typically lethal manifestation of the malignancy.

The researchers show that blocking this signaling pathway in concert with CSF1R inhibition significantly extends survival in mouse models of breast-to-brain metastases.

Joyce, Klemm, Sevenich and colleagues wanted to examine whether the CSF1R inhibitor would have a similar effect on TAMs in breast cancer-brain metastases, and to get key insights from preclinical studies as to how the treatment might play out over the long term in patients.

They report in the Nature Cancer publication that treatment with the CSF1R inhibitor, BLZ945, initially reduced the establishment of breast cancer-brain metastases, stalled their growth for several weeks and induced some regressions of established brain tumors in mouse models.

The researchers found that combining BLZ945 with an inhibitor of STAT5 signaling (or an anti-CSF2 antibody) durably stalled the growth of breast cancer-brain metastases in the mouse model.