Nat Commun: Why are cancer immunotherapy ineffective in young women?

August 18, 2020 /--- / --- Cancer immunotherapy enhances the ability of the patient's own immune system to remove tumors on its own, and has broad prospects for some patients.
therapy is not widely available to all patients.
recent study, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine found evidence that could help explain why young and/or female patients are particularly less likely to respond to certain types of cancer immunotherapy.
(Photo source: www.pixabay.com) their findings suggest that because young and female patients often have stronger immunity to better remove tumor cells, the cells left behind are initially less undetectable to the immune system, making certain types of immunotherapy ineffective.
the study was published on August 17, 2020 in the journal Nature Communications.
cancer cells or infected cells express molecular markers, telling the immune system to remove the problem before it gets out of control.
the surface of most cells in the body using the main tissue compatible complex (MHC).
MHC is marked with antigens and presented to T-cells that constantly examine damaged or infected cells.
because tumor cells carry a large number of mutations, they appear frequently in these signs, allowing the immune system to detect and eliminate them.
but some tumor cells also evade the immune system by throwing a stop-signal molecule, making it unrecognized.
this is the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors.
, why does a person's age or gender affect the role of immunosuper inhibitors? Studies have long found the effects of gender and age differences on immune responses.
, for example, women respond twice as much to influenza vaccines as men and are much more sensitive to autoimmune diseases.
, the body's immune system weakens as it ages.
, if women and young people have a stronger immune response in most cases, why is the response to immunotherapy weaker? To find out, Carter's team studied the genome information of nearly 10,000 cancer patients in the National Institutes of Health's Cancer Genome Map, as well as the genome information of 342 other patients with other types of tumors in the International Cancer Genome Association database and the International Cancer Genome Database.
found no age or gender-related differences in MHC function.
found that younger and female patients tend to accumulate more cancer-causing genetic mutations that MHC cannot effectively present to the immune system than older and male cancer patients.
Carter says this is probably because young and female powerful immune systems are better at removing well-behaved cells that carry mutant antigens, leaving behind more underperforming tumor cells that carry mutant antigens.
(bioon.com) Source: Why young and female patients don't respond well to cancer immunotherapy Original source: Andrea Castro et al, Strength of immune selection in tumors with sex and age, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17981-0.