(Press-News.org) An enigmatic type of circulating tumor cell called a dual-positive (DP) cell is associated with shorter survival time in patients with advanced breast cancer, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The findings highlight the potential importance of these under-studied cells in breast cancer progression.
Circulating tumors cells are breakaway tumor cells that can seed secondary tumors (metastases) and are commonly detected in the blood of patients with cancer. Dual-positive cells are circulating cells that bear both tumor-cell and immune-cell markers and are thought to be hybrid cells resulting from rare fusions of tumor cells with immune cells. Recent studies have linked DP cells’ presence in patients’ blood to worse outcomes in melanoma and pancreatic cancer.
In the new study, published March 11 in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers linked DP cells to shorter survival times in patients with advanced breast cancer, especially the aggressive “triple-negative” breast cancer subtype. The team also showed with animal models that DP cells can seed breast cancer metastases.
“A better understanding of the role of these unusual cells in triple-negative breast cancer might help us devise better treatments and methods for predicting and monitoring treatment responses,” said study co-first author Dr. Carolina Reduzzi, assistant professor of cancer biology research in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Dr. Eleonora Nicolò, instructor of cancer research in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine is the other co-first author of the study. Drs. Reduzzi and Nicolò are members of the laboratory of study senior author Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli, professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and an oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The team initially analyzed blood samples from 340 women with advanced breast cancer who had agreed to participate in the research study when it began at Northwestern University, where Dr. Cristofanilli was originally located. DP cells tended to be less numerous than ordinary circulating tumor cells, which are a known risk factor for metastasis and shorter survival. However, the researchers identified at least one DP cell in 152 (44.7%) of the women. Patients with three or more detected DPs had median survival times of just 23.5 months, compared to 33.6 months for patients with less than 3 detected DP cells. The association between more than 3 DP cells and shorter median survival was validated in an additional group of 51 patients with advanced breast cancer who agreed to participate in the study at Dr. Cristofanilli’s clinic at NewYork-Presbyerian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Comparisons of different breast cancer subtypes indicated that the shorter-survival risk from DP cells was concentrated mainly among patients with triple-negative breast cancer, a subtype in which tumor cells lack the three most common breast tumor markers: estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors.
Supporting the hypothesis that DP cells originate from tumor-cell/macrophage fusions, the researchers found that 60% of analyzed DP cells from patients bore a standard macrophage marker. Moreover, the team were able to detect DP cells in breast cancer mouse models only when the mice had intact immune systems.
About 29% of patient DP cells had genetic abnormalities called copy number alterations, which are commonly found in tumors. Although patients’ ordinary circulating tumor cells were more likely to show such abnormalities, DP cells seemed fully capable of seeding metastases in animal models.
The findings underscored the relevance of DP cells in breast cancer and the importance of studying them further. The team is currently conducting a comprehensive characterization of DP cells’ gene expression patterns, which should better define their cellular origins.
“Our current therapies target ordinary cancer cells, but DP cells have a different biology,” said Dr.Cristofanilli, who is also the scientific director and head of the Liquid Biopsy Platform at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and the associate director of precision oncology at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center. “We need to understand that better if we’re going to target them effectively.”
Many Weill Cornell Medicine physicians and scientists maintain relationships and collaborate with external organizations to foster scientific innovation and provide expert guidance. The institution makes these disclosures public to ensure transparency. For this information, see profiles for Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli and Dr. Carolina Reduzzi.
END
Unusual tumor cells may be overlooked factors in advanced breast cancer
2026-03-11
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Plants pause, play and fast forward growth depending on types of climate stress
2026-03-11
New research could help engineer crops that recover after extreme weather events
Plants pause their growth during stress, then press play when conditions improve, helping them recover and live on to produce food, according to a new study.
Published today in New Phytologist UBC researchers have pinpointed the genes and pathways responsible for recovery from the environmental stress of cold snaps in winter or overloads of salt when coastal fields flood.
“With a changing climate and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, the work could help create climate resilient crops, where genetically ...
University of Minnesota scientists reveal how deadly Marburg virus enters human cells, identify therapeutic vulnerability
2026-03-11
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (3/11/2026) —In a new study published in NatureExternal link that opens in the same window, University of Minnesota researchers found that the Marburg virus, one of the world’s deadliest pathogens with an average 73% fatality rate, is unusually efficient at getting inside human cells. They also showed that the virus’s entry protein contains structural features that explain this efficiency and point to a strategy for blocking infection.
The researchers designed a tightly controlled system that enables a fair comparison of the entry proteins of Marburg and its relative Ebola. Using ...
Here's why seafarers have little confidence in autonomous ships
2026-03-11
A number of autonomous ferries will be deployed on Norwegian routes, the first as early as this autumn. They are intended to be operated with minimal human intervention. At the same time, captains and mates on Norwegian ships are concerned about the technical safety of autonomous ships.
"Seafarers feel strongly that people should continue to work on board, maintaining oversight and control so that unforeseen events can be managed properly,” said PhD research fellow Asbjørn Lein Aalberg.
He is conducting research on seafarers' trust in autonomous vessels at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU's) Department of Industrial ...
MYC amplification in metastatic prostate cancer associated with reduced tumor immunogenicity
2026-03-11
“MYC amplification is associated with reduced tumor immunogenicity as assessed by the recovery of IR recombination reads from prostate cancer genomics files.”
BUFFALO, NY — March 11, 2026 — A new research paper was published in Volume 13 of Oncoscience on February 7, 2026, titled “Reduced immunogenicity of MYC amplified, metastatic prostate cancer.”
Led by Sunny Kahlon of the Department of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida — with corresponding author George Blanck (also affiliated ...
The gut can drive age-associated memory loss
2026-03-11
We become forgetful as we age. This is often seen as a universal truth, but in fact it is far from universal: some people remain incredibly sharp at 100 years old, while others experience memory loss starting in middle age.
While it seems logical that age-related cognitive decline would be blamed on brain aging and degeneration (which, like anything in the brain, is notoriously hard to treat), there’s some evidence that processes elsewhere in the body influence the brain’s ability to form memories. In particular, neuronal pathways that sense the status of other organs in the body can influence cognitive functions in the brain. Other studies ...
Enhancing gut-brain communication reversed cognitive decline, improved memory formation in aging mice
2026-03-11
The sight of a delectable plate of lasagna or the aroma of a holiday ham are sure to get hungry bellies rumbling in anticipation of a feast to come. But although we’ve all experienced the sensation of “eating” with our eyes and noses before food meets mouth, much less is known about the information superhighway, known as the vagus nerve, that sends signals in the opposite direction — from your gut straight to your brain.
These signals relay more than just what you’ve eaten ...
Mothers exposure to microbes protect their newborn babies against infection
2026-03-11
CINCINNATI—A multi-center study led by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s sheds surprising new light on why some newborns become severely ill from Escherichia coli infection, but others do not.
Turns out that most babies are immune because of germ-fighting antibodies they receive from their moms.
The study, published March 11, 2026, in the prestigious journal Nature, dove into new depths to explore why only some babies develop severe infection to common bacteria. E. coli is a common bacteria that lives in the intestines of ...
How one flu virus can hamper the immune response to another
2026-03-11
How One Flu Virus Can Hamper the Immune Response to Another
Prior exposure to one strain of influenza virus may weaken children’s ability to mount an effective antibody response against their subsequent exposure to a different flu strain, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The analysis of the pediatric response to H3N2 and H1N1 influenza A viruses, two of the most common causes of flu, provides insight into the concept of “immune imprinting,” and supports ...
Researchers uncover distinct tumor “neighborhoods”, with each cell subtype playing a specific role, in aggressive childhood brain cancer
2026-03-11
New research published today in Nature finds that tumor cells within supratentorial ependymomas (SE) – an aggressive childhood brain cancer – cluster into distinct tumor cell populations. Much like a neighborhood in your hometown, each cell subtype within these “communities” has a specific (and previously unappreciated) role to play. Understanding how SE tumor cells form neighborhoods and the function of each cell type could help better predict how these tumor cell subtypes will respond to treatment.
The research team, led by Mariella Filbin, MD, PhD, Co-Director of the Brain Tumor Center at Dana Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer ...
Researchers develop new way to safely insert gene-sized DNA into the genome
2026-03-11
Genome editing-based therapies typically aim to treat disease by correcting underlying genetic mutations in patient’s cells. However, most genetic disorders are caused by dozens or even thousands of unique mutations spread across a gene; this diversity results in challenges of scale when it comes to developing customized therapies for many individuals. A more universal strategy could involve the precise insertion of an entire copy of a healthy gene into a specific location in the genome, which could, in principle, provide a single, widely applicable treatment for all patients irrespective of their mutation ...