Current research into immunotherapies

In London, Dr Masahiro Ono is looking at the roles played by our immune cells in response to melanoma, the most common type of skin cancer. He’s exploring ways to activate immune cells, to see if he can make immunotherapy more successful at treating cancer and reduce the side effects.

This research could help make immunotherapy treatments kinder and more effective for people with melanoma, so that more people can survive their disease.

In Southampton, Professor Simon Crabb is leading a clinical trial called AURORA to test immunotherapy in a rare type of cancer called urinary tract squamous cell carcinoma (UTSCC). The trial will determine whether the drug atezolizumab, which inhibits a molecule called PD-L1, is safe, effective and tolerable for patients with UTSCC.

Professor Helen Reeves is leading a team of researchers across the UK, Italy and Spain to find new ways of treating liver cancer. Researchers in the HUNTER network are looking at the molecular clues that predict how patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer, will respond to immunotherapies. “We’ve tried to bring together the best people around the world to work out why the immune response is switched off in some patients, and hope our research will help to switch it back on."