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Dana-Farber research leads to better understanding of immune system in kidney cancer
Two research papers highlight single-cell dissection of kidney tumors to identify new immunotherapy treatments and targets
In the last two decades, immunotherapy has emerged as a leading treatment for advanced renal carcinoma cancer (more commonly known as kidney cancer). This therapy is now part of the standard of care, but it doesn’t work for all patients, and almost all patients, no matter how they respond initially, become more resistant to treatment over time. The immune system plays a critical role in kidney cancer disease progression and in response to therapies, and so a fundamental challenge in the field is to understand the underlying “immune circuitry” of this disease.
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NEW YORK, NY (March 1, 2021) By harnessing the immune system against cancer, immunotherapies have revolutionized the way some types of cancer are treated. But most patients across cancer types do not respond, and in most cases, scientists are at a loss as to why.
Researchers at Columbia and MIT have created a new technique that can uncover nearly all of the tricks cancer cells use to evade immunotherapies, which could lead to the development of more effective treatments.
The researchers tested their new technique with cancer cells and matching immune cells from melanoma patients and identified previously unknown resistance mechanisms to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a powerful and widely used class of immunotherapy drugs.