Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment by helping the body's own immune system recognize and attack cancer cells. For some people with lung cancer, these therapies have been lifechanging. But many patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease, do not respond to current immunotherapies.
With $3 million in funding from a new Terry Fox New Frontiers Program Project Grant (PPG), a team of Toronto-based researchers will uncover how these tumours evade the immune system and develop new immunotherapies designed to overcome this resistance.
“If successful, this work could lead to new immunotherapy approaches that are effective for patients who do not benefit from current therapies,” says Dr. Pamela Ohashi, senior scientist at UHN’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the project’s lead.
Many of these hard-to-treat lung cancers are driven by changes in certain genes, such as EGFR and KRAS. These genetic mutations cause cancer cells to grow uncontrollably, but they can also suppress the immune response, making it harder for the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer. As a result, many patients face limited treatment options and poorer outcomes.
Over the next four years, the multidisciplinary team will study the immune cells found in lung tumours with EGFR and KRAS gene mutations, uncovering how their behaviour affects the body’s ability to fight the disease. They will focus specifically on a group of immune cells known as innate-like T cells—part of the body’s first line of defense—which can detect stress signals that allow them to recognize cancer cells using alternative strategies. Using advanced technologies and genetic screening, the team will identify the specific receptors these immune cells use to recognize cancer and harness this knowledge to develop new immunotherapies that direct cancer-fighting T cells to tumour cells.
By investigating a specialized group of immune cells that recognize cancer differently from most other immune cells, this research could pave the way for new treatment strategies for patients whose tumours resist existing immunotherapies, guide future clinical innovations in cancer care, and ultimately improve survival and quality of life for people with lung cancer. Looking ahead, the discoveries and treatments developed through this PPG could also be applied more broadly, extending the impact of this research to people facing other types of cancers.
“Every donation to the Terry Fox Foundation helps make innovative research like this possible, and every discovery moves us closer to finishing Terry’s fight against cancer,” says Dr. Ohashi. “Support from the Terry Fox Research Institute allows scientists, clinicians, and patients to work together to tackle the toughest questions in cancer research—including how to develop more effective immunotherapies for lung cancer. These questions may not have immediate answers, but they have the potential to transform patient care.”