Immunotherapies checkpoint inhibitors

Rodrigo Toledo

Vall d’Hebron Institut d’Oncologia (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitor-based therapies have shown benefits in the treatment of several types of tumours and, after showing exceptional improvements in some patients, have been approved for use in the fight against melanoma, kidney, bladder and lung cancer, but have also shown promising results in other tumour types. However, despite the progress made, most patients do not respond to these treatments: the overall response rate is only 20 %. There is therefore an urgent need to identify new therapeutic targets and design new drugs that can be used in combination with existing immunotherapies to enhance their therapeutic efficacy and patient outcomes.

The project will design and test the effectiveness and safety of a new drug molecule that can be combined with these immunotherapies to increase their efficacy. This molecule will target the ferroptosis pathway, a lipid oxidation process that causes cell death and can regulate the efficacy of immunotherapy. The results of the project could pave the way for a new therapeutic approach based on the combination of immunotherapy and new drugs to overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Developing a new therapeutic approach to overcome resistance to checkpoint inhibitors

Stage 1