LUNG cancer patients could benefit from a new discovery which could predict which sufferers could benefit the most from particular treatments.
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that boosts the body’s natural defences to fight the cancer.
Scientists have discovered a new type of immune cell that could predict which lung cancer patients will benefit most from immunotherapy treatment.
Around 35,600 people die from lung cancer each year in the UK, making it the most common cause of cancer death in the UK.
Researchers at the University of Southampton and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, California, found lung cancer patients with large amounts of a particular type of immune T-cell, called tissue-resident memory T-cells, in their tumour were 34 per cent less likely to die.
The study also found that it was not just the numbers of cells that increased survival, but the cells’ behaviour played a key role.