Dr Carmela de Santo
University of Birmingham
Awarded: £139,904
The challenge
Osteosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma are the most common types of sarcoma in children. Even with treatments like surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, survival rates for children with sarcoma have not improved as much as other childhood cancers.
In about half of cases, the cancer is resistant to treatment. For those that treatment is effective, the side effects can cause problems with growth and development. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new and better treatments.
How will this project tackle this challenge?
This research will explore immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. Immunotherapy has worked well in other types of cancer, but so far hasn’t been as successful in sarcoma. This is because sarcomas can create a tumour environment that blocks immune cells from working properly.
To overcome this, the team will analyse patient tissue samples using a special technique called Nanostring GeoMx. They will study and identify the immune cells that are already found inside sarcomas. This will help understand how some immune cells manage to survive and function in this tough environment.
Based on what they learn, the researchers will engineer patient’s immune cells in the lab, helping them to better infiltrate the tumour and survive long enough to destroy the cancer.
What this means for people affected by sarcoma
By understanding and enhancing how immune cells work inside sarcomas, researchers hope to create personalised immunotherapies that are more effective and have fewer long-term side effects than current therapies. If successful, the team hope to take this forward into clinical trials in the future.
