Immune landscape of the premetastatic lymph node in lymph node positive invasive breast cancer patients

Lymph node metastasis is a key variable involved in the prognosis and treatment plans for breast cancer patients. Although lymph node involvement is usually associated with a poor outcome, long-term survival is achieved within a fraction of patients. The lymph node microenvironment clearly has an important role in the development of these tumour cells, but the immune features and underlying biology is not well described.

Hypothesis: B cell subset diversity, cell-cell interactions and distribution will be altered in the lymph nodes of breast cancer patients susceptible to developing metastasis

Aims:
1. Perform IF on uninvolved and involved lymph nodes from patients with advanced breast cancer to determine basic B cell, myeloid and T cell distribution
2. Use IMC to underpin multiple B cell subsets and their spatial arrangement and interactions within the premetastatic niche of the lymph nodes from the same patient cohorts
3. Cross-reference results with readily available RNAseq data to compare and contrast immune and tumour-related pathway activation
4. Simulate metastatic breast cancer in vivo using the 4T1 and 67NR models, utilising IF and scRNAseq of B cell subsets identified using IMC