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LEIDEN
Scientists from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam think they can take a new step in the fight against cancer.
They have discovered how some immune cells are able to detect and remove tumors that are invisible to the normal defense mechanisms of the human immune system.
“We now have a better understanding of how these immune cells work against tumors in cancer patients and how we can use them to develop new immune therapies,” says Emile Voest, professor of medical oncology and group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.
The researchers recently noticed that some patients with these invisible tumors responded very well to immunotherapy against cancer.
“Further investigation of cells from patients treated at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital shows that so-called gamma delta T cells – a less well-known, specialized type of immune cell – are able to detect cancer cells that are invisible to conventional T cells.” , the scientists explain.
“This shows that our immune system has some kind of backup. If it is not possible to recognize cancer cells in the normal way, there is a second line of defense. Our findings may eventually lead to new treatments for invisible tumors with gamma delta T cells,” says Noël de Miranda, group leader of the Cancer Immunogenomics research group at the Department of Pathology at the LUMC.