Removing fibrotic barriers to improve immunotherapy responses in ovarian cancer

Project summary

Tumors which do not respond to modern anti-cancer immunotherapies are defined by an overabundance of collagen. Evidence suggests that this is because the immune cells, which are required for these therapies to work, are physically excluded by a scar tissue-like collagen barrier (“fibrosis”) that encapsulates the tumor. While we know that this collagen barrier is deterministic for therapies, we don’t know how to remove it or how and why it forms. We will investigate and drug the unique metabolic pathways responsible for the synthesis of this collagen barrier to improve immunotherapies against recurrent ovarian cancers, which lack treatment options.