A new clinical study by the Brussels-based Jules Bordet institute may have found a new way to make certain breast cancer tumours more sensitive to immunotherapy.
Radiotherapy may be the answer to so-called “cold” tumours, which in contrast with their “warm” counterparts are not as easily detected by the body’s immune system. The study, which was published in the prestigious Nature Medicine magazine, investigated whether this already existing approach could constitute a helping hand in boosting the body’s immune response.
And help it did! First results indicate that radiotherapy can make those cold tumours more sensitive to immunotherapy. If they are confirmed in a full-scale clinical trial, it would mean that the world-renowned Belgian doctors of Bordet and indeed oncologists all over the world can tackle those difficult tumours in an effective way with already existing means.
This would be terrific news for millions of people around the world suffering from the most common cancer among women. Well done to the Bordet institute, and may the result be confirmed in a large-scale clinical trial.
