Reprogramming of Tumor Stroma to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapies have shown impressive success in cancer treatment. However, these therapies are limited to certain type of cancers, and success rate is still low.

In particular, certain types of solid tumors containing an abundant stroma, which represent a majority of epithelial derived cancer, respond very poorly to immunotherapies.

In these tumors, a major challenge for the development of novel cancer immunotherapies is represented by the tumor microenvironment (TME), a highly hypoxic and immunosuppressive environment which prevents proper tumor infiltration and functioning of effector immune cells.

Recent discoveries identified tumor-activated mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) developing within the TME, and showed that they represent a major brake for efficient antitumor immunity in solid tumors.

In this project, we will investigate the potential of a novel approach and therapeutic avenue to target specific populations of MSCs within the TME, and determine the synergistic effect with immunotherapies to improve treatment efficacy in solid tumors. In the long term, this project aims at overcoming a major barrier in utilizing cancer immunotherapies in solid tumors.