New Way to Sensitize Cancer Tumors for Immunotherapy

New counter intuitive approach that encourages mutations can make tumors sensitive to immunotherapy. This approach worked successfully across various tumor types and individual patient genomes, according to the study involving mouse models and human cells which appear in Nature Communications.

Cancer tumor’s ability to mutate or change structurally allows it to bypass from chemotherapy. So, encouraging mutations would not be a logical path for cancer researchers.

Levels of APOBEC3B also sensitized cells to treatment with immune checkpoint blockade, a major mechanism of immunotherapy.

"When you put that in the context of vaccine therapy, the mutations generate neoepitopes ? a type of peptide that is a prime target for killer T cells," says Dr. Vile. "So that, combined with the checkpoint blockade, make for a potential cross-tumor therapy."

The results showed a high rate of cures in subcutaneous melanoma and brain tumor models, and effectiveness no matter the tumor type or location. The results also showed that an individualized approach for each patient is not required. The team are hoping to translate this work into clinical trials for pediatric brain tumors within the next year.

Source-Eurekalert