The more kinds of leukocyte antigens in cancer patients, the better immune effect

A new study published in Nature Medicine found that the more kinds of leukocyte antigens in cancer patients, the better the effect of immunotherapy In the future, doctors are expected to provide better individualized treatment according to the human leukocyte antigen gene map of cancer patients Cancer immunotherapy is to eliminate tumor cells by enhancing the body's autoimmune system Immunosuppressant is one of the cancer immunotherapies When cancer patients are treated with immunocheckpoint inhibitors, some proteins that reduce the immune response are inhibited, and immune cells can better fight against cancer cells However, some patients have obvious curative effect, some patients have little curative effect Researchers from Max Planck Institute of evolutionary biology in Germany and colleagues in the United States found that patients with more varieties of human leukocyte antigen have better response to the treatment of immunosuppressive checkpoint inhibitors and longer survival time Tobias Lentz of the Institute, the co-author of the paper, explained that each human leukocyte antigen variant can bind to several different pathogen or cancer cell protein fragments The more variants of human leukocyte antigens, the more pathogens they provide to immune cells This increases the chance for the immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells Human leukocyte antigen gene diversity can be determined by DNA analysis, the researchers said At present, this kind of analysis is in the process of clinical evaluation In the future, it is expected to take the analysis of HLA diversity as a part of cancer diagnosis and provide individualized treatment for cancer patients