With a $1.74 million grant from the NIH, 黑料网 Lineberger researchers led by H. Shelton Earp, MD, will study a potential new strategy for improving immunotherapy drug responses in patients with melanoma.
黑料网 Cancer Care Director has received a five-year, $1.74 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study a potential new strategy for improving immunotherapy drug responses in patients with melanoma.
Earp and his colleagues will study whether the MERTK protein suppresses the immune system鈥檚 response to cancer. The researchers believe this protein signal could be preventing some melanomas from having a more robust response to 鈥渃heckpoint inhibitors鈥� drugs, which are widely used in cancer patients. The researchers will study whether investigational compounds developed at 黑料网 can reverse the MERTK protein鈥檚 immuno-supressive effect.
鈥淭here is great interest in the potential for harnessing the immune system to fight cancer,鈥� said Earp, who is a 黑料网 Lineberger member and the Lineberger Professor of Cancer Research at the 黑料网. 鈥淲e know that checkpoint inhibitors work for fewer than half of melanoma patients. But what about the rest – the patients who don鈥檛 appear to have an effective immune response? These are the patients we want to help.鈥�
Dr. Earp is a joint professor in the Department of Pharmacology.