ITOC 2026 | Secretome profiling to identify and target immune-excluded solid tumors
Krijn Dijkstra, MD, PhD, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses the potential of secretome analysis to identify patients with immune-excluded tumors, highlighting that while it may be an indirect approach, it provides an additional mechanistic layer to understanding the underlying biology. Identifying key secreted factors driving immune exclusion could enable patient stratification for treatment or even targeting these factors with blocking antibodies. This interview took place at 12th Immunotherapy of Cancer (ITOC) Conference in Munich, Germany.
These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.
Transcript
Yeah, that’s an interesting thought. The question is whether secretome analysis would be the most straightforward way to identify patients that are immune-excluded because it feels a bit indirect and probably the more direct way would be just looking at the extent of immune infiltration there. What I think it adds, though, is an additional mechanistic layer. And this is only the beginning of this research program, but what we now want to understand is which of these secreted factors are really important in driving this phenotype, in driving immune exclusion...
Yeah, that’s an interesting thought. The question is whether secretome analysis would be the most straightforward way to identify patients that are immune-excluded because it feels a bit indirect and probably the more direct way would be just looking at the extent of immune infiltration there. What I think it adds, though, is an additional mechanistic layer. And this is only the beginning of this research program, but what we now want to understand is which of these secreted factors are really important in driving this phenotype, in driving immune exclusion. And if we can identify factors that really have a causal role to play there, yes, then this would be an important way of either stratifying patients for treatment or ideally targeting those very factors, for example, with blocking antibodies.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
