World-First Breakthrough in Bowel Cancer Treatment
A team of researchers at University of Galway’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences have revealed the results of a world-first study into how bowel cancer shuts down the immune system, and how this can be reversed to improve treatment.
Professor in Tumour Immunology Aideen Ryan said: “The interaction between the cancer, our body’s healthy cells and our defence mechanism is a complex one, but our research shows that the cancer is essentially creating an immune brake”.
The research team showed how structural stromal cells, the cells that allow cancer to grow, switch off the immune system and how the body’s own killer cells can be switched back on.
Now published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC), the research identified a specific enzyme that drives this process of ‘switching off’ and showed how the use of drugs called sialidases could reactivate the body’s most important tumour-fighting cells.
Professor Ryan said: “While immunotherapy has revolutionised care in cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer, it has shown very limited benefit in bowel cancer, leaving patients with advanced disease with few treatment options and poor survival outcomes.”
“Our research is a clear breakthrough in our understanding of bowel cancer and how immunotherapy could be more successful”, Professor Ryan added.
Jim Broderick, M.D., CEO and Founder of Palleon Pharmaceuticals, who develops sialidase drugs, said: “The discoveries from Professor Ryan’s lab bring new hope to patients battling colorectal cancer and other malignancies that have proven resistant to existing immunotherapies.”
Professor Ryan’s pioneering cancer research is featured in the Breakthrough Cancer Research exhibition, Cancer Revolution: Science, Innovation and Hope, which is on display in Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre until Friday, October 31st.
The display explains how Professor Ryan’s team discovered that stromal cells act as an “immune brake” and how targeting this brake could finally allow immunotherapy to work for patients with colorectal cancer.
The full paper is available online at the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer: URL: https://jitc.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/jitc-2025-012491
