Descripción del proyecto
Una vacuna contra el cáncer de páncreas
Nuestro sistema inmunitario tiene una notable capacidad para identificar y eliminar las células infectadas o anormales, como las cancerosas, que expresan antígenos «extraños». Sin embargo, se sabe que el cáncer contrarresta la función del sistema inmunitario mediante una serie de estrategias. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PAVE se centra en el adenocarcinoma ductal pancreático (ACDP), uno de los cánceres más agresivos y letales, y tiene el objetivo de desarrollar vacunas para potenciar o reactivar el sistema inmunitario contra la enfermedad. Se espera que estas vacunas superen las limitaciones impuestas por el microambiente tumoral y el bajo número de leucocitos infiltrados en el tumor. Además, los investigadores pretenden abordar el reciente descubrimiento de que el ACDP secuestra el sistema inmunitario para favorecer su crecimiento.
Objetivo
A Nanovaccine Approach For The Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer By Multicomponent Immuno-Modulation: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women and still fatal in over 90% of patients. It is characterised by its extremely aggressive nature where it is also responsible for the highest mortality rate compared to other major cancers, resulting in excess of 250,000 deaths worldwide per annum. Current state-of-art therapies for advanced PDAC including chemo- and/or radiotherapy, despite extensive efforts, have met with only limited success.
Surgery is only applicable for those with early stages of the disease, or to relieve symptoms, if the cancer is blocking the bile duct or the bowel. There are two major reasons for the resistance of PDAC to conventional therapy. Firstly, PDAC has a very defining hallmark, where an abundance of stromal content is present in the tumour microenvironment (TME) to form a physical and biochemical barrier. Secondly, during progression of the disease, the body's immune system is hijacked to support the proliferation of the cancer. New approaches, such as immunotherapy, are therefore needed where it has already shown promise in overcoming many aspects of this resistance. Immunotherapy has the potential to treat minimal residual disease after pancreatic resection (surgery) as well as for metastatic and non-resectable PDAC. Our objective for this project
is to bring together a multidisciplinary and intersectoral group to develop novel vaccine approaches, including use of multiple immunomodulating components.
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MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinador
80539 Munchen
Alemania