Nghiem Lab Study Published to Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer
Congratulations to members of the UW Division of Dermatology’s Nghiem Lab Research Team whose study on Merkel-cell carcinoma (MCC) was published to the Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer on Sept. 9, 2022.
The study titled, “Transcriptional and functional analyses of neoantigen-specific CD4 T cells during a profound response to anti-PD-L1 in metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma,” focuses on a patient’s response to immune therapy.
Members of the Nghiem Lab Research Team who contributed to this study include; Candice Church, PhD, Research Scientist, Thomas Pulliam, MD/PhD Student, Natalie Longino, MD, PhD, Song Park, MD, Acting Instructor, UW Division of Dermatology, and Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD, Head of the UW Division of Dermatology and Principal Investigator for the Nghiem Lab.
Description of Study:
“MCC has a high chance (about 60%) of responding to immune therapy with PD-1 blocking agents. Remarkably, the chance that virus-negative MCC tumors will respond to immune therapy is the same as for virus-positive tumors, although the targets the immune system ‘sees’ are very different in nature. This is a detailed study of the immune response of a patient with virus-negative MCC who had lasting benefit from anti-PDL1 therapy. It highlights similarities and differences in the immune response in these two subsets of MCC.”
