Immunotherapy to attack solid tumours

Sonia Guedán

Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Spain

The immune system is composed of different types of cells that protect us from many diseases. However, in the case of cancer the tumour suppresses the activity of defences, which are incapable of identifying and eliminating it.

Immunotherapy is an oncological treatment that stimulates a type of defences to attack the tumour, in this case the T-cells. This therapy, which combines cell therapy with genetic engineering, is efficacious against some tumours, such as haematological malignancies, but in the case of solid tumours is less effective.

The project investigates how this type of therapies, based on the infusion of T-cells capable of recognising tumours, can contribute to also attacking solid tumours, which are responsible for three out of every four deaths from cancer.

• Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Spain

• Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC bioGUNE), Spain

Development of enabling technologies for T-cell immunotherapy of solid tumors

€963,488