Personalized Therapies for Hard-to-Treat Cancers

Dr. Anusha Kalbasi, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, along with his colleagues at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found a way to make certain melanoma tumors visible to the immune system, allowing them to be better targeted by immunotherapy.

Usually, immunotherapy relies on the ability of T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. But, in some patients, tumors with immunotherapy resistance escape. This new method will help slow down tumor division and can lead to the release of molecules that recruit more immune cells to the tumor and create more personalized therapies for people with hard-to-treat cancers.