Cancer Immunotherapy
Group Leader: Prof Franca Ronchese
The Cancer Immunotherapy Research Group at the Institute, led by Professor Franca Ronchese is studying the different cells of our immune system, which are responsible for fighting cancer, the most important ones being Dendritic Cells and T Cells.
The concept of immunotherapy is based on the body's immune system, a network of specialised cells that protect us against diseases caused by infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. When cells become cancerous they produce abnormal proteins not found on healthy cells that act as markers for recognition by the immune system. The immune response to cancer is not as robust as that to infectious agents such as viruses or bacteria however, because tumours arise from cells from within the body, so can often escape recognition as “foreign” by the immune system.
With the exception of cardiovascular disease, more New Zealanders die from cancer than any other health condition (New Zealand Cancer Control Trust) and the need for more effective cancer treatments is higher than ever.
There is now considerable evidence that the abnormal proteins expressed in cancer cells can serve as targets for T cell-mediated immune responses that limit the growth of tumour tissue. Vaccination strategies that aim to induce the proliferation of tumour-specific T cells may therefore provide an effective therapy for cancer.
The establishment of T cell-mediated immunity, whether in response to disease or invoked by immunisation, is ultimately dictated by specialised antigen presenting cells called dendritic cells. Amazingly, only a few dendritic cells are necessary to initiate powerful immune responses.
We are using dendritic cells as the basis of cancer vaccines designed to instruct the immune system to selectively recognise and destroy cancer cells. We believe that a greater understanding of the basic biology of dendritic cells and how they initiate anti-tumour immune responses will help facilitate their use in cancer immunotherapy.
