Throughout a presentation on the 2025 Kidney Most cancers Analysis Summit, Dr. Berkay Simsek, a analysis fellow in pathology at Brigham and Girls’s Hospital, mentioned how tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) might affect response to immunotherapy in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).
TAMs are among the many main immune cells that infiltrate tumors. TAMs are sometimes linked to creating most cancers more durable to deal with in cancers like colorectal and pancreatic cancers; nevertheless, they could play a special position in Hodgkin lymphoma, the place they’ve been related to higher remedy response. Simsek famous that their position in predicting medical outcomes stays unsure, particularly in ccRCC.
Dr. Simsek’s analysis checked out whether or not excessive ranges of a particular sort of TAM (CD163-positive) are linked to raised outcomes with first-line PD-1 immunotherapy utilizing Opdivo (nivolumab). His findings counsel that these immune cells is perhaps reprogrammed by remedy to modify from serving to the tumor develop to serving to the immune system struggle it.
He additionally studied how TAMs work together with different immune cells in particular areas inside tumors. Understanding these interactions, significantly in pretreatment samples, may assist determine which sufferers usually tend to profit from immunotherapy.
“The goal of immunotherapy is definitely immune cells within the tumor microenvironment, not the tumor itself,” Simsek stated. By finding out which immune cells categorical key markers and the way they relate to medical outcomes like progression-free survival or response fee, researchers could possibly refine how and when immunotherapy is used.
Transcript
How would possibly understanding immune cells in a tumor assist predict which sufferers or responding nicely to immunotherapy?
The goal of immunotherapy is definitely immune cells within the tumor microenvironment, not the tumor itself. Totally different immunotherapies have totally different targets on these immune cells, and it is vital to grasp which immune cells categorical these markers. Additionally, understanding the composition of the tumor microenvironment — particularly in pretreatment samples — and analyzing that in relation to outcomes like progression-free survival or goal response fee is vital.
Reference
- “Simsek S. CD163+ tumor-associated macrophages and medical outcomes to first-line nivolumab remedy in sufferers with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma: insights from the HCRN GU16-260 trial.” Introduced at: 2025 Kidney Most cancers Analysis Summit, July 17 to 18, 2025.
Transcript has been edited for readability and conciseness.
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