New funding has been awarded to Dr Mónica Pascual-García from the University of Barcelona aiming to re-educate immune cells to fight osteosarcoma cells and stop it from spreading.
Osteosarcoma is the second most common type of primary bone cancer, and the most common type of primary bone cancer in children and young people. Current treatments for osteosarcoma that has not spread, combine surgery and chemotherapy with some success. Unfortunately, for patients with metastasis (cancer that has spread to other parts of the body), survival rates are low and have not improved in over 30 years.
Recent studies show that osteosarcoma cells interact closely with immune cells, especially macrophages - a type of white blood cell that can either attack cancer cells or, sometimes, help them grow. Understanding how these macrophages are “programmed” by the tumour is key to finding new ways to boost the body’s natural defences.
One drug that activates macrophages, called mifamurtide, has shown some benefit, suggesting that strengthening the immune response could help patients. However, more research is needed to fully understand and control this process.
This project aims to study how osteosarcoma cells suppress the immune system by influencing macrophages, and to reverse this effect. The research will explore new treatments that can “re-educate” these immune cells to fight the tumour and stop it from spreading.
They will do this by finding a way to disrupt how tumours influence macrophage behaviour, using laboratory models that closely mimic the human disease, including patient-derived tumour samples.
They will aim to block the pro-tumour macrophages and transform them into anti-tumour, using a variety of scientific assays to analyse gene expression in these cells. If successful, next steps will involve preclinical testing, taking this from the laboratory to models resembling more the situation in patients with osteosarcoma, followed by collaboration with clinical partners to explore potential clinical trials.
Viqui Vinader, Head of Research at the Bone Cancer Research Trust, shared:
Thank you to everyone whose fundraising has made this vital project possible. By improving our understanding of how immune cells behave in osteosarcoma, we can develop more effective treatments that harness the body’s own defences to fight the tumour and prevent it from spreading. Your generosity is helping our research community turn scientific discovery into real hope for patients.