Dr. Kosari on Antitumor Immunity in Small Cell Lung Cancer

Farhad Kosari, PhD, assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, discusses antitumor immunity as a key determinant for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) survivorship.

When comparing factors that contribute to long-term survivorship in SCLC, Kosari found a group of patients who survived 4 years, and compared their tumors with patients who had the expected survival of 2 years. The gene expression data showed that the differences were based on tumor immunity.

There is potential for immunotherapy to be applied to patients if the immune system can be activated, Kosari explains. Patients who have autoimmune disease generally have long-term survival and this study gives more details as to the different components of the immune system that need to be activated to achieve longer survival.