Grant: Project Grant

Dr. Spaner is trying to develop methods to improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy. Chemotherapy is the main form of treatment for cancer but cannot cure most types of cancer. Immunotherapy is another form of treatment that tries to stimulate cells of the body's immune system, called T cells, to kill cancer cells. Unfortunately, cancers may become resistant to T cells in the same way they learn to resist chemotherapy. This resistance is due largely to cytokines and other factors that are associated with cancer and suppress the immune system. A drug called Ibrutinib, which is used currently to treat blood cancer patients reduces production of these immunosuppressive factors and helps T cells kill cancer cells. Unfortunately, cancer cells are still able to survive in the presence of Ibrutinib. Dr. Spaner's group has found that Ibrutinib causes the production of a cytokine called Interferon-beta that can continue to suppress the immune system. In this project, Dr. Spaner will try to learn more about how Interferon-beta suppresses T cells and if using drugs that prevent interferon-beta from acting on cancer cells together with Ibrutinib can be a safe and effective way to improve immunotherapy. He will study cancer cells from patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), the most common leukemia in Canada, as it is easy to obtain large numbers of cancer cells for experiments, unlike most other cancers. The results of this project are expected to justify using Ibrutinib and Interferon-signaling inhibitors to treat CLL. This approach is expected to increase cure rates with immunotherapy in CLL and also many other forms of cancer.