Helping immune cells enter tumours and strengthen cancer immunotherapy responses

Álvaro Teijeira

Fundación para la Investigación Médica Aplicada (FIMA/CIMA), Spain

Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of several cancers by helping the immune system recognise and attack tumour cells. Yet many patients do not benefit because immune cells cannot enter some tumours effectively. One important barrier is the abnormal network of blood vessels that feeds many tumours and prevents immune cells from accessing them. This project aims to develop a new type of therapy that modifies these vessels so that immune cells can access tumours more easily.

A research team including experts in cancer biology, immunotherapy, vascular biology and advanced screening technologies will design and test engineered molecules that attract immune cells towards tumours to help them reach cancer tissue. The work will initially focus on the most common form of liver cancer, in which blood vessels play a key role in tumour growth and progression. Promising candidates will undergo testing in laboratory and animal models.

By strengthening the body’s natural anti-cancer response, this project could help develop more effective cancer immunotherapies. If successful, findings could translate into new treatment options for tumours that are currently difficult to treat.

• Irene Hernández, Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra, Spain

• Eduard Porta, Fundació Institut de Recerca Contra la Leucèmia Josep Carreras, Spain

Tumor endothelium targeted immunotherapies

€998,931.50