2 million euros for cancer research Netherlands Cancer Institute

About 700 people get soft tissue cancer, an aggressive form of cancer that is usually insensitive to existing treatments, every year. These tumours - also called sarcomas - arise from the soft tissue of the body, such as muscles, fat or connective tissue. Five years after diagnosis, fewer than half of those patients are still alive. Why do the treatments not work, and which therapy do patients with such a sarcoma benefit from? Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute are now going to take on this question with the help of a subsidy of 619,508 euros from the Dutch Cancer Society.

One hundred subtypes

The key player that the researchers are aiming for is the AXL protein. In other tumor types, that protein is involved in drug resistance. Similarly, there is a relationship between AXL and the resistance of tumors to immunotherapy, a relatively new and successful treatment that boosts the immune system of patients to fight the tumor. Sarcomas also do not respond well to immunotherapy and, interestingly, sarcomas contain a lot of this AXL protein.

Researcher Julia Boshuizen: “That sarcomas are so difficult to treat is partly because there are a hundred subtypes, all with different DNA mutations. But what all these subtypes have in common is that they produce a lot of AXL, more than any other type of cancer. That is, therefore, a very good starting point for research, and hopefully a basis for future sarcoma treatment.”

AXL inhibitors

Armed with clear leads from previous research, research leader Daniel Peeper and his colleagues investigate exactly what role the AXL protein plays in the growth and resistance of sarcomas, and whether patients can benefit from AXL inhibitors that are already being developed. Daniel Peeper: “In collaboration with clinical sarcoma specialists at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, we are looking into the presence and composition of the immune cells in relation to AXL expression in the tumor cells in a large series of sarcomas. We have 3 major questions: Why do sarcomas not respond well to immunotherapy? What role does AXL play in therapy resistance? And then of course: can we do something about it?”

Looking for new treatments

Together with oncologists Rick Haas and Winan van Houdt, the researchers hope to lay the foundation for more effective immune treatments and combination therapies for patients with soft tissue cancer. Surgeon-oncologist Winan van Houdt: “We see the successes of immunotherapy and other new treatments for other types of cancer, but to our great frustration, sarcomas hardly respond to immunotherapy and targeted therapy. We are, therefore, very happy with the new starting point of Daniel's group, with the aim of bringing the findings back to the clinic as quickly as possible.” Radiotherapist Rick Haas adds: “This project is special in that KWF supports us not only in research into common cancer forms but also in research into these rare tumors.”

In addition to Daniel Peeper's project, Netherlands Cancer Institute researchers Arnoud Sonneberg, Wilbert Zwart and Jonne Raaijmakers also received a subsidy from the Dutch Cancer Society for their fundamental research into, among other things, colon cancer and lung cancer.