Research identifies a culprit behind cancer immunotherapy failures

Senior author of the study, the University of Turku's Dr. Maija Hollmén said the research shed light on how cancer hides from the body’s immune system. 

“This research gives us a new, clearer picture of how cancer hides from the body’s immune system. We’ve discovered a key signal that cancer uses to turn the immune system off, which confirms that our drug is aiming at the right target,” she stated.

Scientists had already identified the presence of a protein called Clever-1 as a receptor present on immune cells that can suppress responses to cancer.

Now the Turku researchers, working with colleagues at University of Birmingham, have employed sophisticated new techniques to identify a secreted form of the Clever-1 protein called sClever-1.

This form systematically suppresses the T cells vital to combatting cancer, say the researchers in their study published in Theranostics.

They say their work could now help to identify which patients’ bodies are likely to reject certain immunotherapy treatments.

Furthermore, the research also established that employing the investigational anti-Clever-1 antibody, bexmarilimab directly inhibited the secretion of sClever-1.

Co-author of the study professor, Shishir Shetty of the University of Birmingham and the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, explained the implications.

“As we still see many patients with solid organ cancers where immunotherapy is ineffective… the link we have found is very important. It seems that high levels of sClever-1 in the blood can predict if a patient’s cancer will resist standard immunotherapy,” he said.

"This could allow us to identify patients who might not respond to a certain treatment. For such patients, beximarilimab can be used to make immunotherapy effective again. Ultimately, understanding this helps us create smarter combination treatments for people with advanced cancers.”   

Pic: National Cancer Institute