Predicting immunotherapy response in elderly non-small cell lung cancer patients by zooming into protein/peptide expression patterns at the tumor cell - immune cell interaction border.

Lung cancer still remains one of the most deadliest cancers worldwide, with over 14 million new diagnoses and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths in 2012. Since only a minority of the patients respond to chemotherapy and targeted therapies, immunotherapy might be a valid alternative. The major goal of these therapies is to activate the tumor-deleting characteristics of the immune system. It is known however, that the immune system activity diminishes with age. Therefore, an important question remains whether elderly lung cancer patients would benefit from these immunotherapies. In this project, we will characterize which immune-related proteins and peptides are expressed within the lung tumor microenvironment of elderly patients, at places where immune cells and tumor cells co-reside. This will provide us insights to which factors are important for the maintenance of the immune-suppresive microenvironment. Further comparison of protein/peptide expression patterns of different elderly lung cancer patients might deliver a protein/peptide panel, able to predict which subgroup of patients might benefit from the immunotherapy, thereby optimizing therapy response, minimizing therapy-related toxicity and improving quality of life.

Keywords:LUNG CANCER

Disciplines:Immunology

Project type:Collaboration project