ITOC 2026 | NOD2–Wnt pathway links to immune exclusion across tumor types
Krijn Dijkstra, MD, PhD, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands, describes the relationship between the NOD2 protein and the Wnt pathway in cancer, highlighting its association with immune exclusion across different tumors. While there are common themes that exist across cancers, the exact mechanisms by which this pathway affects immune exclusion differ between tumor types, such as colorectal cancer and melanoma, due to lineage specificity and unique rewiring patterns. This interview took place at 12th Immunotherapy of Cancer (ITOC) Conference in Munich, Germany.
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Transcript
Yeah, I think especially actually the protein we found, NOD2, really is tightly coupled to the Wnt pathway and work from Stephanie Spranger and others have shown consistently that the Wnt pathway across different tumors is associated with immune exclusion. Now I think, so that seems to be something that happens pan-cancer and that’s of course very interesting. I think the exact mechanisms by which this pathway affects immune exclusion differs between tumor types and we’ve seen different things in our colorectal cancer set compared to melanoma where this work originated...
Yeah, I think especially actually the protein we found, NOD2, really is tightly coupled to the Wnt pathway and work from Stephanie Spranger and others have shown consistently that the Wnt pathway across different tumors is associated with immune exclusion. Now I think, so that seems to be something that happens pan-cancer and that’s of course very interesting. I think the exact mechanisms by which this pathway affects immune exclusion differs between tumor types and we’ve seen different things in our colorectal cancer set compared to melanoma where this work originated. So I think it’s a bit of both. There are common themes that cut across cancers but we also shouldn’t ignore the lineage specificity of individual tumor types that have of course specific rewiring patterns.
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