The protective shield of cancer cells must be broken!

According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer has become the fifth leading type of cancer death among women, with the majority of ovarian cancers classified as high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC)

Some scientists are considering using immunotherapy to overcome drug resistance

According to new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), for immunotherapy to really work, it is necessary to address the protective environment that cancer cells create for themselves

It happens that CD155 itself can bind to the checkpoint receptor TIGIT on immune cells, and tumors indirectly control the activation state of immune cells through CD155

▲ Inhibiting FAK and reducing the level of CD155 are the prerequisites for improving the efficiency of immunotherapy (Image source: Reference [2], credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences)

In animal models, the researchers tried administering anti-FAK drugs to mice with ovarian cancer, and the mice started to drop levels of the protein CD155

Compared with controls, mice given both drugs had significantly smaller tumors and better survival rates

Note: The original text has been deleted

References:

[1] Tumor FAK orchestrates immunosuppression in ovarian cancer via the CD155/TIGIT axis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022).

[2] How ovarian cancer defies immunotherapy.