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Immunological aspects of head and neck cancer in relation to etiology
Koucký, Vladimír ; Bouček, Jan (advisor) ; Říhová, Blanka (referee) ; Smilek, Pavel (referee)
Tumor immunology is a progressively developing, multidisciplinary branch of biology. Results of basic research have already been successfully translated to clinical practice. The immediate success of new immunotherapeutic drugs, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors, has further supported the expansion of basic and clinical research in this field. In the case of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), some immune system elements, such as CD8+ T cells, were shown to play an important role in the progression of the disease. Importantly, HNSCC is a diverse group of diseases, and a significant number of the tumors are induced by high-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV-associated tumors (HPV+ ) respond better to standard therapy, and the immune system was shown to be one of the crucial factors in this phenomenon. We focused on the analysis of phenotype, function, and prognostic value in tumor-infiltrating immune cells in HNSCC patients regarding the HPV status of the tumor. We were able to detect CD8+ tumor-infiltrating T cells reacting to HPV16 antigens in the majority of HPV+ oropharyngeal cancers. Moreover, activity of these T cells was enhanced after blockade of both PD-1 and TIM-3 immune-checkpoint pathways, supporting a concept of combined immunotherapy. In our...
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Tumor-infiltrating T cells and their role in adoptive cell immunotherapy of cancer
Střížová, Zuzana ; Smrž, Daniel (advisor) ; Vannucci, Luca Ernesto (referee) ; Posová, Helena (referee)
Cancer immunotherapy has become a leading treatment modality in metastatic diseases. Although this novel therapy has changed the therapeutic algorithms and patients' outcomes in multiple malignancies, certain proportions of patients still fail to respond to these approaches. In our studies, we aimed to address the main mechanisms of tumor resistance to cancer immunotherapy. We have systematically defined the main challenges in adoptive cell transfer. We have focused on two key mechanisms of the tumor resistance to immunotherapy: poor trafficking of adoptively transferred immune cells into tumors, and the death receptor-induced apoptosis of the tumor-infiltrating immune cells. In our work, we have gone beyond the tumor tissue and searched for the immune cell populations and novel targets that would help to challenge the two mechanisms of resistance. Our data uncovered the therapeutic potential of the paratumoral tissue compartments and, thus, provided new avenues on how to challenge solid tumors by immunotherapy.
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The role of the immune system in colorectal and ovarian cancer
Kocián, Petr ; Hoch, Jiří (advisor) ; Prausová, Jana (referee) ; Žaloudík, Jan (referee)
Prediction of clinical outcome in cancer is usually achieved by histopathological evaluation of tissue samples obtained during surgical resection of the primary tumor. Traditional tumor staging (AJCC/UICC-TNM classification) summarizes data on tumor burden (T), presence of cancer cells in draining and regional lymph nodes (N) and evidence for metastases (M). However, it is now recognized that clinical outcome cansignificantly vary among patients within the same stage. Data collected from largecohorts of human cancers has demonstrated the impact of immune-classification, which has a prognostic value that may add largely to the significance of the AJCC/UICC TNM-classification. In our study we examined the immune cells that infiltrated the tumor tissues of colorectal and ovarian cancer patients. In a cohort of newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients we examined the correlations between the KRAS mutational status, patterns of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and the presence of tumor recurrence. Our data suggest that colorectal cancer patients with low levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, a high CD1a/DC-LAMP tumor-infiltrating dendritic cells ratio, and a KRAS mutation in codon 13 are at a high risk of disease recurrence. In ovarian cancer patients we focused on the dynamics of the tumor-infiltrating...
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