Southampton scientists switch focus and make key discovery that could make immunotherapy more effective

Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that uses our immune system to fight cancer, but it doesn’t work for everyone and in many patients it can stop being effective over time.

A team of our researchers at the University of Southampton, led by Professor Gareth Thomas, has been examining the types of cells that surround tumours — cancer associated fibroblasts — to identify features that stop the treatment from working.

Now, in a new paper published in Molecular Cancer, the research team have made a significant discovery that could help make immunotherapy more effective and improve outcomes across multiple cancers.

Switching focus

Fibroblasts are healthy cells that have many different roles in the body, including creating connective tissue. When they are hijacked by cancer cells, they become cancer associated fibroblasts and are known to help tumours grow, spread and evade therapy.

Thomas and his team have been studying these cells to identify why they might stop treatments working. But recently they opted to switch focus and instead go in search of cells that show a positive, anti-tumour immune response – helping the body’s immune system to attack tumours.

Professor Gareth Thomas and team have identified a cell characteristic that could improve immunotherapy success rates

“We have spent a long time studying the types of cells that stop immunotherapy from working properly, and we already knew there was a certain type of cancer-associated fibroblast that blocks the body’s anti-tumour immune response,” said Gareth Thomas, Professor of Experimental Pathology at the University of Southampton.

“In this study, we decided to do the opposite, and try to get a better understanding of cells that actively support anti-tumour immunity.”

An exciting discovery

The research team used state-of-the-art sequencing technology to analyse head and neck cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), a type of cancer known to produce a strong immune response that is associated with longer survival.

“Excitingly, in these cancers we found a type of fibroblast that we think helps stimulate anti-cancer immunity. We also found this cell in other cancer types and have shown that patients whose cancers contain lots of these cells have a much better response to immunotherapy,” said Thomas.

While still in its early stages, the researchers hope that this discovery could be replicated in patients’ cancers to make immunotherapy work more effectively.

“Our team has worked out what makes these cells form and can now do this in the lab. Our next step is to work out whether we can use this information to develop a treatment that supercharges a patient’s response to cancer immunotherapy, giving them a better chance of beating this disease.”

Immunotherapy is a promising area for the treatment of many cancers, but resistance to immunotherapy remains common. Knowing there is a chance some treatments may not work can be hard for some patients who may experience side effects whilst receiving them.

Research like this, that offers insights into how we could improve their response to immunotherapy across multiple cancer types is an exciting development and we hope it could lead to better chances for patients undergoing these types of treatments.

- Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK