Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute was awarded a five-year $12 million grant by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, to define how cytokines – proteins produced during immune response – regulate inflammation and interact with cells and molecules surrounding tumors.
Delivering cytokines in immunotherapy can signal an immune response that kills off cancer cells, but resulting inflammation also can create an environment that encourages cells to mutate and tumors to grow. Gathering detailed information on how cytokines function within specific types of cancer can help navigate the complex pathways tumors use to evade treatment and make strategies like immunotherapy more successful.
