TMRC Seminar Session - Christian Steidl of Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, British Columbia Cancer and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia.
Transboder Medical Research Center Seminar (Event Completed)
Co-sponsored by: TSMM, Tsukuba Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy Conference
Presenter: Christian Steidl
Lymphoid Cancers: The importance of the tumor microenvironment
Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, British Columbia Cancer
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia
Innovation Building, 8th Floor, University of Tsukuba.
July 19th, 2023,
18:00 - 19:00
Lymphoid cancers represent a heterogeneous group of neoplasms composed of malignant lymphoid cells with variable infiltration by non-neoplastic, mostly immune cells (tumor microenvironment).
The tumor microenvironment is increasingly recognized to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of many lymphoma subtypes. However, the clinical potential of an improved understanding of related biology remains largely untapped. Past discovery and functional studies by our group and others have pointed to the pathogenic importance of acquired immune privilege and altered cellular crosstalk between cells in the tumor microenvironment driven by somatic gene alterations.
The genomic changes discussed in this lecture can be broadly categorized according to the effect that they exert on the tumor microenvironment:
1) Loss or down-regulation of (surface) molecules leading to decreased immunogenicity of tumor cells;
2) Increased expression of surface molecules suppressing immune cell function;
3) Recruitment or induction of a regulatory cellular milieu. The discovery of gene mutations underlying immune privilege, downstream functional consequences, biomarker development and clinical rationales for therapeutic intervention will be discussed in the context of specific lymphoma subtypes.