Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Current treatments employ immunotherapy, often in combination with chemotherapy, but benefits to patients remain slight. In a pre-clinical study, EPFL researchers investigated a method shown to enhance immunotherapy for other cancers. The study is published in Science Translational Medicine as the cover article.
“The type of immunotherapy approved for lung cancer treatment, called immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), is in a class of drug that can instigate CD8 T immune cells to attack the tumor,” says Amaia Martinez-Usatorre, lead author on the study and a postdoc in Professor Michele De Palma’s lab. “Unfortunately, only about a fifth of patients with lung cancer benefit from ICB, and long-lasting responses are rare.”
Scientists are trying to improve the efficacy of ICB in lung cancer, often by combining ICB with other drugs to directly enhance the CD8 T cells’ effect. But if there are not enough CD8 T cells in the tumor – often the case in lung cancer – this isn’t effective.
The team looked at lung cancer models with tumors genetically engineered to have mutations found in human lung cancer disease. “These tumors develop like the human lung cancer and are similarly difficult to treat with available anti-cancer drugs,” explains Martinez-Usatorre.
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Science Translational Medicine. Research Paper (Paywall):
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