According to the GLOBOCAN 2022 suggests that there were 2.3 million new cases and 6,70000 deaths from female breast cancer worldwide. Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has taken up an initiative to reduce breast cancer mortality by 2.5% by understanding and improving breast cancer therapies using innovative strategies. However, it is observed that the treatment of metastatic breast cancer is most difficult due to the unresponsiveness of conventional or targeted therapies. In this respect, it has been observed that the Tumour Microenvironment (TME) plays a crucial role in developing drug resistance in several breast cancer patients, even though they are treated with targeted or immunotherapy. Various tumour microenvironmental components, such as Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs), Cancer Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs), and Tumour Associated Macrophages (TAMs), are involved in promoting tumour growth by making these cells resistant to most of the breast cancer therapies. Besides these cell types, members of Tumour Immune Microenvironment (TIME), such as chemokines and cytokines, also play an important role in maintaining the antitumor immune responses. So far, it has been seen that clinicians have totally neglected tumour macroenvironmental cell types and mainly focused on the regression of tumour mass containing cancer cells by targeted and immunotherapy. But as an innovation, it has been seen that tumour microenvironments containing Cancer Stem Cells or Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts are resistant to this therapy due to their different genotypes. Therefore, we propose here that it is important to study these resistant cell types of TME components after their targeted therapy to get better management of metastatic breast cancer. Our laboratory has isolated resistant Cancer Stem Cells from a female metastatic breast cancer patient and Cancer Associated Fibroblasts from an oesophageal cancer patient and shown that these cells expressed all metastatic genes, which make them resistant to cancer therapies. Our studies have further shown that these cells can be modulated by treatment with Chitosan particles, resulting in a reduction of the metastatic potency of these cells in vitro. Thus, this study suggests that these resistance cell types from the TME component can be very well modulated by specific therapy or the use of the nanomedicine concept. So overall this presentation mainly highlights the therapeutic approach to overcoming the major breast cancer immune resistance. This can be achieved by modulating tumour microenvironmental components such as CSCs, CAF, and infiltrating immune cells by reprogramming or reprofiling for the specific genome of these cell types to get precise targeted therapy or immunotherapy for metastatic breast cancer patients.

Dr. Pravin D. Potdar has been a faculty member and Chairman of the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) for Research and Development at Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Education & Research Centre, Mumbai, India, for the past seven years. He completed his Ph.D. at Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai, India, in 1991 and has worked in the area of cancer research for more than 35 years. He is a pioneer scientist in the field of cancer research and stem cell research. In June 2017, he completed 12 years of successful tenure as the Head and Chief of the Department of Molecular Medicine & Biology at Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre, Mumbai, India. At Jaslok, he has established a Molecular Diagnostics and Stem Cell Research laboratory and carried out various Research Programs in the field of cancer research, neurological and genetic disorders, infectious diseases, diabetes mellitus, etc. At Jaslok, he has developed several innovative technologies that can help to diagnose and treat various cancers. He has also carried out extensive research work in the field of stem cell research and developed several mesenchymal and hematopoietic stem cell lines from various normal and tumor tissues, adipose tissue, human placental membrane, dental pulp cells, blood cells, etc. His laboratory became a reference laboratory for several doctoral and post-doctoral students who wish to learn better technology in these fields from all over India and abroad. He has published almost 100 papers in the field of cancer research and stem cell research in well-known international medical journals. He has trained more than 1,000 students all over India and abroad in the field of molecular medicine and stem cell biology. He was honoured with the position of Secretary for the Scientific Advisory and Ethics Committees of Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre, Mumbai, for 7 years. Besides that, he was the recipient of the prestigious “National Institute of Health” (NIH), USA, award for 1 year, and worked as a Faculty Scientist at the world’s topmost cancer centre, “M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, Texas, USA” for almost 3 years. He was also a Founder Member and Ex-Vice President of “The Molecular Pathology Association of India (MPAI). He has been appointed as an Editorial Board Member and reviewer for many national and international journals. Due to excellent work in the field of cancer and stem cells, his name is included in Marquis’ “Who’s Who in World” Book in 2012. In the year 2015, he was invited as a member of a delegation to visit Italian universities working in the fields of biotechnology, cancer genomics, stem cell research, and regenerative medicine by the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce (IICC), Mumbai, India. He was also a Review Board Member of “The Well come Trust DBT Alliance Fellowship” for clinicians (Government of India) from 2014 – 2017. He was an Editorial Board Member and Guest Editor for “The Journal of Cancer Metastasis & Therapy (JCMT)” IF (2.0) and successfully published 2 special issues on “Circulating Tumour Cells in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapies” and “Immunotherapy of Cancer” in 2017 and 2020, respectively. He also received the “Indy Wood Medical Excellence Award 2016” from the World Medical Council, Government of Telangana State, India, in 2016. He was also a finalist for the British Medical Journal (BMJ) South Asia Award 2016 for best research paper of the year 2016. This paper has been read by more than 65,000 scientists all over the world since its publication in 2015. In 2017, he was nominated for the Edward Kennedy Memorial Award 2017 by the Malaysian Cancer Organization for excellence in cancer diagnosis and therapy research work. He was also the recipient of the very prestigious award, “Renato Dulbecco’s Award 2020” at the 3rd World Cancer Congress held in Navi Mumbai, India. He was honoured to be a Member of the Board of Studies in Biological Sciences & Regenerative Medicine at NMIMS University, Mumbai, since July 2021. He has also been an Editorial Board Member of the Journal “Diseases and Research” since February 2022 and published a special issue on “Tumour Microenvironment in Therapy of Metastatic Cancer” in October 2023. In December 2022, he joined the Scientific Advisory Board of the international cancer diagnostic company Pred Omix, New Delhi, India. In the year 2023, he was awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” for best work in cancer diagnostics and therapy by the International Conference for Award Winners in Engineering, Science and Medicine at Pondicherry, India. He was awarded “The Best Healthcare Leader of the Year 2023 Award” by the 2nd Edition Pharma and Health Tech Conference held in Mumbai in October 2023. Recently, he has been invited to publish a special issue on cancer therapy by “The Springer Nature” journal. He was also one of the reviewers for the “Frontiers in Oncology” journal and the Journal of “Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (JSRM),” PubMed Journals. He was a winner of “The Best Molecular Biologist of the Year Award” at the 3rd Edition Diagnostic Forum and Award 2025, organized by Voice of Healthcare (VOH) on 16th January 2025 at The Westin Hotel, Goregaon, Mumbai. This year, he has been offered a position as Guest Editor for “Discover Oncology,” a Springer Nature Journal.