. Scientific Frontline: New immunotherapy can be effective for ovarian cancer

Monday, February 6, 2023

New immunotherapy can be effective for ovarian cancer

Patients with ovarian cancer usually have a poor prognosis.
Photo Credit: National Cancer Institute

A certain type of immunotherapy in which the body's T cells are programmed to attack cancer cells, called CAR-T cell therapy, is effective in ovarian cancer mice. It shows a study published in The Journal for Immuno Therapy of Cancer by researchers from Karolinska Institutet who hope the findings pave the way for a clinical trial to see how effective the treatment is for women with the disease.

This treatment exists today for patients with blood cancer and we now want to investigate whether we can use the method to treat ovarian cancer. Despite many improvements in treatment, women with ovarian cancer have continued to have a poor prognosis, says Isabelle Magalhaes, associate professor at Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet and shared the last author of the study. 

Isabelle Magalhaes, associate professor at KI.
Photo Credit: Helen Kaipe

Tumor environment negative for T cells 

Until now, CAR-T cell therapy has tried to work poorly for cancers that cause tumors.

Tumors often occur in a negative environment for T cells, partially because the oxygen level is low. This can lead to inactivation of attacking T cells and thus poor treatment effect. That's why we wanted to investigate if it would still work, say Jonas Mattsson, visiting professor at Karolinska Institutet and the other study's last authors. 

Many ovarian tumors have mesothelin protein. The researchers wanted to test three types of CAR molecules programmed to attack that particular protein.

Ovarian cancer cells in test tubes were repeatedly exposed to the program with CAR-T cells. In addition, several experiments were done on mice.

Jonas Mattsson, visiting professor at KI.
Photo Credit: The picture makers

Mice lived longer 

All three CAR-T cells significantly prolonged the life of the mice with cancer, compared to the mice in the control group. But one of the three CAR-T types, known as M1xx CAR-T cells, had superior efficacy. The mice injected with that molecule reduced their tumors and lived even longer than the other mice. Several of the mice were even cured.

In several mice, no tumor cells were left that we could detect and the effect lasted just over three months after the treatment started. This provides evidence that immunotherapy in which CAR-T cells attack the mesothelin protein is a promising treatment for ovarian cancer, says Jonas Mattsson.

What is the next step in your research? 

Hopefully this finding will pave the way for a clinical study Our goal is to predict the optimal conditions for producing CAR-T cells so that they can infiltrate and fight the tumor and survive in the body of women with ovarian cancer, says Jonas Mattsson.

Funding: The study was funded by the Cancer Foundation, the Child Cancer Foundation, the Radium Home Research Fund, the Swedish Research Council and through a donation from Jeanette and Harald Mix.

Published in journalImmunoTherapy of Cancer

Source/CreditKarolinska Institutet

Reference Number: med020623_01

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