Presence of impaired T-cell activation in the bone marrow of primary breast cancer patients with tumor cell dissemination?

Detection of micrometastatic bone marrow cells at diagnosis has been recently identified as an independent prognostic factor of primary breast cancer. It still remains unclear, why these disseminated tumor cells are able to survive in the bone marrow over years and are not eradicated by the local immune system. We could show recently that patients with primary beast cancer have an impaired T-cell activation of peripheral blood lymphocytes. Compared to healthy donors breast cancer patients have a highly significant reduction of CD 28, the important molecule for effective T-cell priming. Moreover we found a concom…