Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have discovered that the interferon gamma receptor (IFNgR) signaling pathway is critical for susceptibility of glioblastoma tumors to killing by CAR T-cell immunotherapy. The same phenomenon was observed in other solid tumors. This discovery may partly explain why liquid and solid tumors respond very differently to CAR T-cell treatment. The research is published in a paper in the Nature.
A chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is any synthetic molecule that specifically commands the T cells of the immune system to identify and stick onto a target, or antigen. CARs recognize targets that are on the surface of tumor cells. While CAR therapy has had a transformative impact on the treatment of hematologic cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, it has not this translated into similar success in solid tumors.
