Scientists develop a new method to accurately study immune cells in cancer

Immunotherapy, a new treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to kill cancer cells holds huge potential in the treatment of cancer. However a lot of patients do not respond to this kind of treatment. This because tumors are extremely heterogeneous. Understanding and modelling this heterogeneity holds huge potential in the treatment of cancer. Scientists have now developed a new methodology (ImSig) to study this extremely heterogeneous tumour samples and understand the complex tumour-immune interactions. Using these researchers showed how immune cells be both good and bad in different cancer types.
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The method is analogous to analysing a fruit smoothie to find what fruits went into making it. It works by looking at the genes that are expressed in immune cells. In the future, this information could help doctors identify the best treatment for a particular patient and reveal new genes to be targeted by drugs