The research could help clinicians identify patients who might benefit from targeted therapy for liver cancer

The research could help clinicians identify patients who might benefit from targeted therapy for liver cancer -

Undo Roswell Park Cancer Institute provides clinicians treat patients with advanced liver cancer a way to identify patients who may benefit most from targeted therapy sorafenib.

"Our study is the first to demonstrate the powerful immunotherapeutic benefits of sorafenib and suggest that targeted treatment can prolong survival in a subset of patients with liver cancer," says the author of main document, Yasmin Thanavala, PhD, professor in the Department of immunology and a member of the tumor immunology and immunotherapy program at Roswell Park. "The drug has significant anti-angiogenic properties, and also appears to be the real impact on the weakened immune system of patients with advanced liver cancer."

Looking at blood samples from patients with advanced liver cancer, the researchers assessed the frequency and levels of expression of several cells and immunosuppressive drugs before and after treatment with sorafenib. The team found a statistically significant reduction of the checkpoint molecule PD-1 expression levels on important immune cells known as "helper", "killer" and regulatory T cells, and that this response was strongly linked overall survival of patients. They also observed a beneficial increase in the ratio of effector T cells to T cells control after treatment with sorafenib. The results suggest that sorafenib reduces the number of immunosuppressive cells in patients who respond to treatment, and the combination of this targeted immunotherapy agent can improve treatment outcomes in patients with liver cancer.

"These results indicate that patients with an increased number of cells expressing PD-1 checkpoint molecule before treatment are more sensitive to sorafenib therapy. Increasing these numbers in the samples pretreatment blood may be a biomarker indicating which patients respond better to treatment and may help predict overall survival of patients, "adds Dr. Thanavala.