Researchers from the Toulouse Cancer Research Center have just discovered a molecule essential to the fight of the immune system against cancer cells during immunotherapy. A discovery that would allow the development of new treatments against cancer.
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382,000. This is the number of new cancer cases per year in France metropolitan, according to the National Cancer Institute. Detected at an advanced stage, these are difficult to cure. Fortunately, in recent years, a new therapeutic approach has been used to treat them: immunotherapy.
Instead of directly attacking tumor cells, this strategy aims to stimulate the immune system of patients to eliminate these cancer cells with the killer lymphocytes. According to the analysis of 19 international studies, 25% of patients treated with immunotherapy showed a “lasting response”, compared to only 11% of those who received other treatment. However, immunotherapy is not not effective for all patients.
An essential molecule
With his latest discovery, a team of researchers may have just found the key to understanding the resistance to immunotherapy. Led by Dr Ludovic Martinet and Pr Hervé Avet-Loiseau from the Toulouse Cancer Research Center (CRCT), these researchers succeeded in identifying a essential molecule in the fight of the immune system against cancer.
Indeed, certain molecules can increase or slow down anticancer abilities killer lymphocytes. Called CD226, this molecule allows them to recognize cancer cells and therefore to be able to destroy them. Without it, the killer lymphocytes cannot function normally. However, the research team noticed a frequent absence of the molecule CD226 in some patients.
More cancer patients healed
Using samples from 177 patients with various cancers and experimental models of tumors, the researchers were also able to realize that this absence was associated with a poor prognosis in various pathologies such as melanoma, breast, lung or liver cancer. With the help of Australian researchers, the Toulouse team observed that the CD226 molecule was needed to allow immunotherapies to reactivate killer lymphocytes. In the absence of this molecule, tumors are therefore immune system resistant.
Ultimately, these discoveries could lead to creation of new treatments with the aim of making immunotherapy more efficient. Thus, a greater number of cancer patients could be cured. And other types of pathologies such as viral diseases could also benefit from this discovery.
Source : https://presse.inserm.fr/cancer-un-mecanisme-cle-de-resistance-a-limmunotherapie-identifie/41613/
Modified on 12/10/2020–
