Discovery brings us one step closer to 'universal' cancer treatment

Scientists in Cardiff may have discovered a universal cancer therapy after discovering a new type of immune cell receptor.

Researchers at Cardiff University discovered a new method for killing a wide range of cancers, by utilising T-cell receptors (TCRs) within the immune system.

The team’s method involves a new kind of TCR which is able to recognise a molecule present on the surface of cancer cells. The molecule, called MR1, is also present in many of the body’s normal cells, but the new TCR only targets and kills cancerous cells.

T-cell therapies for cancer work by having immune cells taken from the patient, which are then modified to target cancerous tumours before being administered once again. However, current T-cell therapies, which include CAR-T, are ineffective against solid tumours, which make up the majority of cancers.  

Described in a study published in Nature Immunology, the technique was shown to kill lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer cells, while ignoring healthy cells. The research was done in animal models of mice bearing human cancer and with a human immune system.

While testing is still in early stages, the researchers were encouraged by the cancer-clearing results which they compared to how CAR-T performed in animal studies.

More so, the team was able to show how modified T-cells of melanoma patients expressing the new TCR could destroy both the patient’s own cancer cells, alongside other patients’ cells in the laboratory.

The team is testing its technique further to fully understand the underlying mechanisms and hopes to trial it in patients towards the end of the year. Before doing so, the team must assess the safety of the technique, in particular, ensuring that T-cells modified with the new TCR recognise and kill cancer cells only.  

Professor Andrew Sewell, lead author on the study from Cardiff University’s School of Medicines said it was “highly unusual” to find a TCR that could target a broad range of cancers.  

“Current TCR-based therapies can only be used in a minority of patients with a minority of cancers. Cancer-targeting via MR1-restricted T-cells is an exciting new frontier - it raises the prospect of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ cancer treatment; a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population. Previously nobody believed this could be possible,” professor Sewell said.

Professor Awen Gallimore, of the University’s division of infection and immunity and cancer immunology lead for the Wales Cancer Research Centre, said: “If this transformative new finding holds up, it will lay the foundation for a ‘universal’ T-cell medicine, mitigating against the tremendous costs associated with the identification, generation and manufacture of personalised T-cells.

“This is truly exciting and potentially a great step forward for the accessibility of cancer immunotherapy.”