Fighting Cancer by Awakening Our Immune Systems

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of the disease, overwhelming the immune system and often resulting in prognoses fraught with dire concerns. However, there is a growing field of study that is finding ways to awaken and fortify the immune system to resist tumors. Anjana Saxena, an associate professor in the Biology Department actively participated in this game changing research, led by New York University scientists. Their findings are published in Nature and Cancer Discovery. At the college, Saxena teaches a course she developed called Cancer Biology, and also focuses on microbes and cancer in her other classes.

"Awakening our immune systems to combat cancer is an exponentially growing research field," says Saxena, who has authored or co-authored dozens of articles on cancer research. "[The] tumor microenvironment is often rich in immune-suppressive cells, a characteristic feature of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDA). Weakened immune response is the major obstacle in targeted immunotherapy against PDA."

Saxena, who did her undergraduate and doctoral work at the University of Mumbai, India, collaborated with researchers at NYU and found a promising solution to the weakening of the immune system as a result of cancer. "We found earlier that bacteria reaching the pancreas are the culprit. It not only debilitates the immune system’s fight against cancer but also speeds up its progression. We now report in Nature that fungi (mycobiome) coming from gut can also be deposited in pancreas to aggravate pancreatic cancer," she says.

To find a solution, the researchers used a mouse model to show that when a combination of antibiotics reduce either bacterial or fungal loads in cancerous pancreas, the immune system is kind of 'rebooted in the right direction' to provide protection against PDA invasion (metastasis/progression)."

Although not yet close to a cure, these discoveries are remarkably positive steps in the quest to contain this disease. "Identifying unique microbial (both microbiome and mycobiome) signatures for pancreatic patients has great potential for a selective antibiotic regimen for this deadly cancer," says Saxena.