Intratumoral lymphatic vessel (green) imaged in the microenvironment (red) of a Braf-driven primary mouse melanoma tumor (credit: Manuel Fankhauser/Maria Broggi/EPFL)
Scientists from Switzerland and the US have shown that lymphatic vessels can enable both metastasis and T-cell invasion, opening new paths for cancer immunotherapy. Many cancers, such as melanoma, are known to metastasize and spread by expanding nearby lymphatic vessels. This process, lymphangiogenesis, also helps the tumor evade the patient's own immune system, and it would be expected that inhibiting lymphangiogenesis, could enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies, which are only effective in a minority of patients. But in a surprising discovery, scientists from EPFL and the US found the opposite: lymphangiogenesis actually enhances the effectiveness of immunotherapy against melanoma. Published in Science Translational Medicine , the study has significant implications for new types of cancer therapies. Cancer immunotherapy is one of the most promising treatments against tumors. The process involves overcoming the tumor's suppression of immune attacks, thus allowing the patient's own immune system to destroy it.
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