From a medical perspective, cancer is a fascinating illness, albeit one with often devastating consequences. Tumor cells replicate by rapidly dividing and spreading using glucose, making it hard to predict or control. However, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital may have discovered a life-changing treatment that could not only blast cancer cells but improve our immune system’s ability to fight them.
Study results published in the journal Cancer Discovery saw scientists use a tool called BipotentR to identify proteins that are involved in both cancer cell metabolism and immune function in cells. Keith T. Flaherty, MD, the director of Clinical Research at the MGH Cancer Center and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, developed BiopotentR to discover the targets that stop our immune system from working properly against cancer cells.
They used this tool on gene expression data from cancer patients who had received immunotherapy treatments as well as on animal models and cell lines. From there, 38 cancer cell-specific immune-metabolic regulators were found. There was a major correlation between the activity level in the regulators and how well a patient fared after receiving immunotherapy.
ESRRA (Estrogen Related Receptor Alpha) was the major regulator activated in tumors that resisted immunotherapy treatment. By kickstarting ERRA, energy metabolism in tumor cells was halted and immune mechanisms were activated, making the cancer easier to fight. While experiments were performed on mice, it’s believed that this could be just as effective in humans and requires further testing to be sure.
Flaherty hopes that the study results will aid cancer doctors to better target treatments and provide more effective therapies to patients overall.
“These findings provide a simple biomarker to predict response/non-response to immunotherapy, and they support ERRA as a therapeutic agent,” Flaherty explained. BipotentR has been made publicly available on the Harvard website here. Hopefully, we can have further cancer breakthroughs that eventually eradicate this terrible disease once and for all.
