Peter Mac's chase for the 'Holy Grail'
1 min read 12 April 2023
The Australian newspaper has described Peter Mac's research into stopping the spread of prostate cancer as a chase for the 'holy grail’
Dr Katie Owen is part of the Parker Laboratory team who have identified an immune signalling pathway that is suppressed when prostate cancer spreads to the bone and makes the cancer cells invisible to the body’s immune response.
"One of the things we've found is that prostate cancer cells seem to acquire and lose certain features when they move to bone, particularly features that allow them to be detected and killed by good immune cells under normal circumstances," Katie said.
"The flow-on effects that this has in an already immune privileged site (anatomical regions that are less subject to immune responses) which includes bone, is to encourage the expansion of bad or pro-tumour immune cells.
"This exacerbates pro-tumour conditions in bone and unfortunately, the changes that we're seeing occur in bone metastases also promote therapeutic resistance, particularly against immune-based therapies, including checkpoint inhibitors, which have shown promise in other cancer types,” she said.
The team’s work has shown that immune signalling pathways can be switched back on in cancer cells to make the cells visible again in certain circumstances, bolstering the body’s immune response.
The research has been funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and is soon be published.