Seed Funding Programm 2022
INTOHEP
Intratumor microbiome in immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma
Coordinator
dkfz.de
Mohammad Rahbari
Chronic Inflammation and Cancer, DKFZ + Surgical Clinic, UMM
Detailed description
Solid malignancies have been shown to be populated by a tumor type-specific intratumoral microbiome. In that regard, bacteria could be found in both, tumor as well as immune cells within the tumor microenvironment.
In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common primary malignancy of the liver, the taxonomic composition of the intratumoral microbiome remains elusive. Importantly, in HCC, the application of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI, an immunotherapy) have been recently established as the new standard of care for systemic therapy. It remains to be further investigated if there is a link between the composition of the intratumoral microbiome and the responsiveness to ICI-immunotherapy in HCC. The analysis of tissue specimens derived from cancer patients before the initiation of ICI-immunotherapy will allow to investigate whether there is an intratumoral microbiome signature, which correlates with therapy responsiveness. It will further enable to identify specific candidate bacteria, which could have an effect on immune surveillance and the effectiveness of ICI-immunotherapy. The aim of this study is to characterize the intratumoral microbiome of responders vs. non-responders to ICI-immunotherapy in HCC and to further investigate potential underlying mechanisms on how intratumoral bacteria may influence anti-tumor immunity in this cancer type.