Oregon Health & Science University researchers have identified a combination of treatments that show promise in slowing the progression of cancer and reducing tumor growth. Their research lays the groundwork for developing more effective treatments for triple negative breast cancers and mesotheliomas—both aggressive forms of cancer that are difficult to treat. The new study was published Friday in Cell Reports Medicine .
"Current immune therapies are effective for only a small percentage of patients with these types of cancer," said Sanjay V. Malhotra, Ph.D.
, co-senior author on the study. Malhotra is the Sheila Edwards-Lienhart Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, a professor of cell, developmental and cancer biology , and the co-director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. "This is a serious gap in treatment, and new medicines are needed.
" Solid tumors—like triple-negative breast cancers, known as TNBC, and mesothelioma, cancer that forms in the internal organs—are often not responsive to chemotherapy or certain immune therapies, such as checkpoint inhibitors, which are drugs that block checkpoint proteins to boost the body's immune system so it can fight cancer. "Only a subset of patients, about 20% to 40%, with advanced solid tumors derive clinical benefit, and of those, a substantial portion progress over time," said Shivaani Kummar, M.D.
, an author on the paper. She is a professor and head of the Division of Hematology and.