Cancer fighter discovered in ‘major’ Melbourne melanoma find

An overlooked cell — found naturally in our bodies — could form a new weapon in the fight to kill cancerous cells in deadly melanoma.

A new medical discovery has found a once overlooked cell can help fight melanoma

A previously overlooked cell found in our own body can actually help fight melanoma, a “major” Melbourne discovery shows, paving the way for better treatments against the deadly disease.

An immune cell was able to invade the tumour and kill the cancer cells itself, while also encouraging other immune cells to attack, the Doherty Institute found.

Postdoctoral researcher Dr Emma Bawden said this response — shown in animal models and described by the institute as a “major discovery” — was much more effective because it attacked the cancer on multiple fronts.

“It’s hard for the cancers to then shut down the immune response, because it’s being targeted in so many directions,” she said.

She said now that they knew the cell, called CD4+ T, has anti-tumour mechanisms, it opened the door to better immunotherapy treatments, which fight cancer by helping the body’s own immune system target cancerous cells.

“In people that have developed melanomas, the tumours have found ways to evade detection by the immune system,” she said.

“One way that we can combat melanoma is to enhance the response of different immune cells.

“It is more specific and there is less destruction of non-cancer cells [than chemotherapy].”

Dr Bawden said CD4+ T were previously thought of as an “accessory” cell, that just helped others cells.

“But … they can directly target tumours themselves and they can do this independently,” she said.

She said the next step was to confirm their findings — published in journal Science Immunology on Saturday — translated to human research.

“There is already kind of initial evidence that this is the case,” she said.

“Then we can start to think about how we target these cells with immunotherapy.”

She said potential treatment possibilities included infusing these cells into patients and vaccinations, and hoped their findings could apply to other cancers as well.