Gamma delta T cells show promise against small-cell lung cancer in dish studies

Lab experiments found gamma delta T cells kill small-cell lung cancer cells, especially alongside two drugs. No animal or patient data exists yet.

An international team has reported that gamma delta T cells, an immune cell type that gets less attention than others, killed small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cells in laboratory experiments. The work appeared in the journal Cancer Cell, with researchers Kate Sutherland and Jin Ng of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Australia among those commenting on it. SCLC has a five-year survival rate below 7%, partly because it hides from immune detection.

The team also looked at data from two earlier immunotherapy trials, IMpower133 and CASPIAN. Patients whose tumors showed signs of more gamma delta T cells tended to respond better. In the dish, these cells were reasonably effective alone. Adding tarlatamab let them capture many more cancer cells by bringing them into closer contact with their targets. Adding zoledronate, already approved for osteoporosis and cancer-related bone disease, raised the cells' numbers and helped them see past the tumor's disguise.

The abundance angle is about options for a disease with very few. Zoledronate is an existing drug, which could make one component of a combination easier to reach than a brand-new compound. The researchers also float a route in which a patient's own gamma delta T cells are expanded outside the body and reinfused. Therapies that expand and reinfuse these cells already exist.

The caveats are large. All results come from cells in the lab, not animals or patients. The next steps are animal models and then clinical trials. Any resulting treatment would not work in every case. The idea that gamma delta T cell levels and the marker BTN2A1 could predict who responds to immunotherapy is only a possibility the team wants to explore. Much work remains.

Source: ScienceAlert