Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men worldwide. While treatments can be effective early on, advanced disease is often difficult to control. One of the key weapons in fighting cancer, immunotherapy, hasn’t been very effective in the prostate. Immunotherapy harnesses the body’s own immune cells to fight tumors. These sentinels roam the body through the bloodstream to keep you healthy, attacking pathogens, viruses, and malfunctioning cells that turn into cancer.
A new study in the journal Immunity reveals that the prostate has its own defense force and unlocks key insights into how this army of cells, known as tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells, or Trm cells, works.
“We found that different types of T cells live in different areas, or neighborhoods, within the tissue, and where they live determines how they behave,” said Kennidy Takehara, Ph.D., scientist at the Allen Institute and lead study author. “This is important because these long-lived immune cells can help recognize and fight cancer. By understanding what helps these cells survive and function, we may be able to design therapies that boost the body’s own immune response against prostate tumors.”
