In 2021, Oncode Institute organized brainstorm sessions to come up with ideas for cross-disciplinary synergies between Oncode researchers to tackle difficult challenges in cancer research. A group of Oncode Investigators from different Dutch institutes (including UMC Utrecht) came up with an exciting new idea requiring broad collaboration to become successful. This launched a new Oncode Accelerator Project, aiming at mobilizing innate leukocytes to attack tumors.

Cancer immunotherapy is a game-changing treatment that stimulates the T-cells of our immune system to kill cancer cells. Its success revealed the major obstacle that faces cancer immunotherapy today: the resistance of tumors to this T-cell mediated therapy. The group of Oncode Investigators are joining forces to face this problem. In this Oncode Accelerator Project, they call in the help of other immune cells, so called “innate leukocytes”. These cells are present in large quantities in tumors, can be rapidly recruited from the blood stream and when steered the right way can effectively fight cancer, independent of T-cells.

Innate leukocytes

The researchers want to understand which and when different types of innate leukocytes can help fight tumors. They also want to analyze how these different cells communicate with each other and with other cells, in order to discover how these cells can be manipulated to fight cancer. Finally, they want to predict the response of patients to therapies, with the ultimate aim to test them in the clinic.

Tumor control

Oncode investigator prof. Linde Meyaard (Center for Translational Immunology, UMC Utrecht says: “I am excited to participate in this excellent consortium to investigate novel targets on myeloid cells in cancer and develop antibody-based therapeutics together with the UMC Utrecht U-MAB antibody facility.”

Project lead prof. Sjoerd van der Burg (LUMC) adds: “This is the first and truly unique approach fully focused on the capitalization of the tumor-controlling role of innate leukocytes for treating tumors that are resistant to T-cell therapy. Success would revolutionize current cancer care. Within Oncode we have assembled an excellent multidisciplinary team with a high level of integrated expert knowledge. Since there are many different institutes involved, we also have access to unique toolboxes, mouse models, patient cohorts, regulatory molecule identification pipelines, facilities, drug repurposing libraries, and an antibody production platform - which will now be combined to serve this one goal in the most optimal possible way.”

Oncode

Oncode is an independent institute dedicated to understanding cancer and translating research into practice. The best fundamental cancer researchers in the Netherlands come together in Oncode to bring their research discoveries into the clinic faster. Along with performing vital basic research, Oncode is specialized in cooperating with third parties to guide its scientists’ discoveries towards translational and clinical research and novel diagnostics, drugs and treatments.

The Oncode Investigators working on this project are: Sjoerd van der Burg, Sjaak Neefjes (LUMC), Karin de Visser, Leila Akkari, Tineke Lenstra, Jacco van Rheenen (NKI), Linde Meyaard, Jeroen de Ridder (UMC Utrecht), Miao-Ping Chien (Erasmus MC), Sarah Derks (AmsterdamUMC) and Carl Figdor (RadboudUMC). This project is funded by KWF Dutch Cancer Society for 3.4 million euros.