Immune therapies declare open season on cancer, rousing immune system cells to take up an attack on tumors. But which immune cells join the hunt, which sit it out, and what happens within immune cells that causes them to go on the offensive? Such questions are especially relevant when immunotherapies show only limited effectiveness against certain forms of cancer. To understand why such treatments sometimes fall short, and how they can be made more potent, scientists need to identify the immune cells that spring into action in response to immunotherapy and the changes those cells undergo. Dana-Farber scientists accomplished just that in a recent study involving high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), the most common form of ovarian cancer and one that has largely resisted immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors. Their findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, provide the first detailed look at the mechanism by which these drugs act on immune system cells in HGSOC and point to other drugs that may be more effective against the disease.
