How can we develop immunotherapy for each tumor type and each individual?

Your immune system actively cleans up the abnormal cells in the body, but cancer cells found a way to bypass that system. Immunotherapy puts the body's own immune system to work, so it can counter the tumor again. Although immunotherapy is hailed as a huge breakthrough, the therapy doesn't work for everyone. One question that we haven't found a clear answer to, is why some patients respond to immunotherapy while others don't. This is a very complex issue, because every patient, every immune system and every tumor is unique. Our researchers and physicians are exploring possible answers that will allow us to better predict which patients will respond to immunotherapy. This will also help us offer new options to patients who do not respond to the current therapies.

Example projects

Genetic fingerprint

To better predict which patients will respond to which type of immunotherapy, our scientists investigate what happens during the body's immune response to cancer. They study the tumor and the body's response down to the molecular level. One of the things they are looking for is a genetic "fingerprint" of a patient's immune response. Based on this information, physicians may be able to predict the type(s) of immunotherapies the patient will respond to, increasing the chance of success.