Two MATRIX projects receive funding from the Norwegian Cancer Society
The Norwegian Cancer Society recently announced that they allocate 210 million NOK for new research projects in 2024. These allocations have been made possible through generous donations from Norwegian citizens, and this generosity now enables the initiation of 27 new research projects. Altogether, the Norwegian Cancer Society received 141 applications for this call.
We are very happy and grateful that two of the newly funded projects are within MATRIX, and we congratulate Åslaug Helland, Kjetil Taskén and their research teams. Helland is awarded funding for MATRIX-RARE, a clinical precision cancer medicine trial for patients with rare and aggressive cancer subtypes. Taskén receives funding for a project focusing on regulatory T cells that will examine how by blocking these suppressor cells, one can restore the body's own immune defense against cancer.
MATRIX-RARE - a national clinical trial and research project
MATRIX-RARE – Drug repurposing in hard-to-treatcancers – is a new national clinical trial led by Åslaug Helland where patients with rare and aggressive cancer subtypes will be offered precision cancer medicine outside indication in earlier treatment lines. This study, which now receives 8 million NOK over three years, will open for patient inclusion early2025, and all the 15 partner hospitals in MATRIX will participate.
The national trial IMPRESS-Norway has since April 2021 included more than 2400 cancer patients with advanced disease, and we see an enrichment of rare cancers (approximately half of all the patients in IMPRESS-Norway have rare cancers). Several hard-to-treat cancers are rare cancers, and few clinical studies are currently available for these patients. However, from IMPRESS-Norway we now know that a larger proportion of these tumors (approx. 23%) have genetic alternations that match targeted drugs approved for other indications, and that 42% of these patients benefit from treatment that matches the molecular biomarker in their tumors. We know that cancer cells are more susceptible to therapy in earlier lines of treatment, and it is therefore likely that patients would benefit more if effective treatment was attempted earlier in the course of the disease. This will now be investigated in more detail in MATRIX-RARE.
MATRIX-RARE will use knowledge from IMPRESS-Norway and focus on subgroups of patients with rare hard-to-treat cancers, who benefit from precision cancer treatment. Initially, the study will include anaplastic thyroid cancer, salivary gland carcinoma, glioblastoma multiforme,cholangiocarcinoma and small intestine cancers.
The newly funded project will in addition focus on biomarkers, as more robust predictive biomarkers are essential to be able to develop precision cancer medicine further.
“We are grateful that our trial MATRIX-RARE receives funding from the Norwegian Cancer Society. This funding contributes to us being able to offer patients with rare and aggressive cancer diagnoses an opportunity to receive experimental treatment earlier in the course of their disease”. Åslaug Helland, National PI MATRIX-RARE and Director, MATRIX
Blocking regulatoryT cells to restore the body's own immune system against cancer
This project, led by Kjetil Taskén and now awarded 8 million NOK over 3 years, aims to investigate in more detail how regulatory T cells, important regulators in our natural immune system, inhibit effector Tcells, and how these cells can be utilized by the tumor to go under the radar of the body's own immune system and thus, bypass anti-tumor immunity.
Taskén’s research group has developed methods to switch regulatory T cells on and off, and they also have methods to look for and find drug-like substances that affect the activation and function of these specific suppressor cells. These substances will now be used as tools to better understand the function of regulatory T cells, characterize their gene signatures and investigate how regulatory T cells (Tregs) bypass the immune system in cancer.
Moreover, these tools will be used diagnostically to find those patients in whom activation of regulatory T cells leads to growth of the tumor, and this work will take place in MATRIX. Finally, newTreg-inhibiting substances that could become possible drugs in the future, will be developed, and their effect will be tested first in animal models and then in patient samples.
The main aims of this project is to understand the suppressive mechanisms of regulatory T cells and how these cells function both in normal immune regulation and in tumor immune evasion as well as to develop methods for targeting specific Treg function. The long-term aim is to commercialize a Treg modulator as a new precision immunology treatment strategy.
“The project is about ways to turn on the immune activity against tumors by removing the brakes on the body's own immune system. This can result in new diagnostics and treatment that can be used together with other immunotherapy in the future. I am very happy that this exciting project is supported by the Norwegian Cancer Society”. Project leader Kjetil Taskén, Head of Institute for Cancer Research, OUH
We look forward to following both of these ambitious projects in the years to come!
