USF Health and Tampa General study links colon cancer's immune resistance to surrounding cells
Lab findings point to a possible target for future immunotherapy; no patient treatment is described.
TAMPA - Researchers at USF Health, working with Tampa General Hospital and Japan's Hokkaido University, report that a chemical balance linked to metastatic colorectal cancer appears to operate mostly in immune cells around tumors rather than inside cancer cells, according to an Oct. 22 USF Health news release.
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research, examined 574 human colon cancer tissue samples. As the cancer spread, levels of a growth-promoting lipid called S1P rose and levels of ceramide, which helps kill cancer cells, fell, the release says. The activity was concentrated in immune cells called macrophages and was tied to more advanced disease and poorer survival.
In lab experiments, blocking two parts of that pathway let killer T cells attack cancer cells again. The release says the work supports further study; it does not describe a human trial or treatment.
The senior author is Dr. Timothy J. Yeatman, a professor of surgery at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.