Researchers put immunotherapy at the service of treatment-resistant lymphoma

Mount Sinai researchers have developed a way to use treatment-resistant immunotherapy drugs for treatment-resistant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma by combining them with a stem cell transplant, an approach that has also significantly increased success. drugs in melanoma and lung cancer, a study published in Cancer discovery in August.

This type of immunotherapy, called "checkpoint blocking," enhances the ability of immune cells called T cells to fight cancer by suppressing the "camouflage effect" that tumors use to hide. Control block block treatment is effective in many types of tumors, but is generally ineffective in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. However, the study found that when this immunotherapy is badociated with a stem cell transplant, which researchers call "immunotransplant," the process accelerates T cells to multiply the cancer immune response, allowing it to be effective Hodgkin lymphoma and more success for melanoma and lung cancer.

The transplant works by "leaving room" for the proliferation of the reinfused immune cells (T cells) by eliminating the immune system from the patient's origin. While they proliferate and strengthen the immune system, they activate and the anti-cancer effect of antitumor T cells becomes stronger.

The findings prompted the launch of a clinical trial using the immunotransplantation approach to treat patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03305445), who began recruiting patients in May. They could also eventually lead to effective therapies for other types of cancer.

"The use of immunotransplant to improve the efficacy of blocking treatment of control points could be largely significant because these immunotherapies are a standard treatment for melanoma, kidney cancer, cancer lung and other, "said the study's corresponding author, Joshua Brody, MD, director of immunotherapy against lymphoma. Program at Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Institute. "Even in contexts in which checkpoint therapy is proving ineffective, our data suggest that its effectiveness could be" saved "by immunoblot. This research also suggests that the addition of Control point blocking may improve other T-cell therapies, such as CAR-T therapy. "

The researchers based their findings in the study on the observation of the immune system's response to bone marrow transplants, T-cell therapy, immunotherapy and atherosclerosis. immunotransplantation in patients and mouse models.