HLA-agnostic T-cell Targeting of Cancer

Cancer immunotherapy was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2018 and is now a first line treatment for an increasing number of cancers. Cancer immunotherapy can result in rapid, complete and durable remission of disease (cure) in some patients. The key to these successes lies in the immune system's T-cells which can 'seek and destroy' cancer cells with remarkable sensitivity and accuracy. We have been studying patients who were cured of end-stage cancer by immunotherapy and found that they have T-cells in their blood that can kill their own cancer line, cancer from other patients and other cancer types using mechanisms new to science. I will dissect and understand how these T-cells distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells. These studies will be used to generate new cancer biomarkers and treatments.