A New Scientific Discovery Could Be Key To Kicking Cancer To The Curb
Cancer survival rates have improved over several decades thanks to research, but cancer still remains the second leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease. According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, one person dies every 9 minutes from blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. Some blood cancer cells evade detection by the immune system while someone is undergoing a cancer treatment called CAR T cell therapy.
Researchers at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment center, have identified a protein that allows cancer cells to sneak past the immune system. In a 2024 article in Cell, the YTHDF2 protein is described as the key driver in aggressive blood cancers. The protein stabilizes RNA molecules to boost energy production, but it also helps these cancers evade the immune system. If this protein is overactive, it can trigger the development of these cancers.
The researchers also tested a drug called CCI-38 that suppresses the YTHDF2 protein to prevent the cancers from escaping the immune system's detection, making CAR T cell therapy more effective. This drug could also help knock out these cancers.
How does CAR T cell therapy fight cancer?
CAR T cell therapy is commonly used for blood cancers. According to the National Cancer Institute, clinicians will collect T cells from your body and engineer them to detect and then destroy cancer cells. These T cells are then infused back into the body. CAR T cells look for a specific antigen found in the cancer cells.
(Read about some unexpected foods that may help prevent cancer.)
"One of the challenges in treating blood cancers is a phenomenon called 'antigen escape.' A key target for these therapies is a protein called CD19 found on the cancer cells," said study author Jianjun Chen, Ph.D., in a news release. Chen is also the director of the Center for RNA Biology and Therapeutics at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope.
Sometimes the cancer cells lose or reduce this CD19 antigen, so the cancer cells escape the CAR T cell detection. The YTHDF2 protein also helps these cancer cells hide. Now that the researchers have identified this protein, they can look for additional methods to improve the effectiveness of CAR T cell therapy. The City of Hope research team is developing clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of the CCI-38 drug.