How do cancer cells modify the microenvironment?

Elías Campo

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

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is the most common haematological cancer among adults in the West, with an estimated incidence of 4-5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The disease may evolve in very different ways: while in some people it stabilises and does not require treatment, in others it progresses very rapidly and, despite treatment, eventually becomes resistant.

Although recent genomic and epigenomic studies, conducted at large scale, have revealed the complexity of the disease's mutations, they do not fully explain its diverse evolution. Recent new data point to the need to take into account, not only alterations in the genome, but also the influence of the tumour's microenvironment. On the one hand, the immune system attacks leukaemic cells, but at some point it weakens and this defence appears to be ineffective. On the other hand, cancer cells need stimuli to grow and survive, and these are provided by the non-tumour cells in their microenvironment.

This project will study how tumour cells are able to influence their microenvironment to their advantage, escaping the host immune system's response. The researchers will also seek to determine whether new genomic alterations can function as targets for therapies that modulate the response of the patients' immune system.

• Xose S. Puente, Fundación Universidad Oviedo, Spain

• Holger Heyn, Centre de Regulació Genòmica-CRG, Spain

(Epi)Genomic and microenvironment interactions driving evolution in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Targets for clinical intervention

€999,806.30