Scientists discover how deadly skin cancer evades the human immune system
Source: Medical Xpress, May 2024
An international study led by Dr. Li Qi-Jing from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) has revealed a mechanism by which melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer, evades the immune system.
Melanoma is notoriously difficult to treat in its advanced stages. Despite some treatments that have improved outcomes, a category of melanomas remains “cold," meaning they are unresponsive to current therapies.
The findings, recently published in the Nature Immunology, demonstrate that human melanomas utilize nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein crucial for nerve development, to shield themselves from the body’s immune responses. This sheds light on how these resistant melanomas camouflage themselves from immune detection.