CAR-T therapy is expected to treat ovarian cancer

Recently, researchers at US Wistar Institute found that follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) protein expressed on the surface of various ovarian cancer cells can be taken as a target for immunotherapy. The modified version of the CAR-T designed targeting at FSHR can destroy ovarian cancer cells implanted in mice without any apparent side-effects.

Although the incidence of ovarian cancer is not high in women, its mortality is the highest among all the women reproductive system cancers. After surgery and chemotherapy, recurrence possibility of the patients remains high. Over the past 40 years, 5-year survival of ovarian cancer patients is almostly not increased. In order to find a lasting effect of treatment, many researchers have turned to the development of immunotherapy to guide the T cells to selectively destroy the ovarian cancer cells. However, to find a suitable target of the treatment of ovarian cancer is not easy.

In this study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, researchers from Wistar Institute found FSHR expresses on the surface of cancer cells in 50% to 70% of serious ovarian cancer. The cell surface of 67% of mucinous ovarian carcinomas and 33% of clear cell ovarian carcinomas also expressed FSHR, while these two ovarian cancers are the most aggressive and worst tumors. Although FSHR also exists in healthy ovarian cells, it doesn’t express in any other healthy parts of the body. This means that with FSHR-targeting immunotherapy can kill cancer cells in the case of having a partial effect on the ovaries.

CAR-T cell therapy is one of the most popular immunotherapies recently. CAR is short for chimeric antigen receptor. These proteins can lead T cells to identify a particular antigen expressed on the surface of the tumor, whereby the eliminating tumor cells. CAR-T cell therapy has remarkable results in treating diseases such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) and other blood cancers, but the effect for solid tumors is not very good.

Researchers at Wistar Institute have developed CAR-T cells targeted at ovarian cancer, and the latter one expresses the whole protein sequence of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) on the cell surface. By specificly combining FSH and FSHR, CAR-T cells can specifically attack ovarian cancer implanted into mice and improve survival of mice. At the same time, the researchers did not observe any side effects of the introduction of CAR-T cells.

This means our findings can be used to eliminate residual cancer cells in a patient’s body, greatly reducing the possibility of cancer recurrence.

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