IMMUNET

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Systematic Evaluation of the Immune Environment of Neuroendocrine Tumours

• IRAS ID

  174964

• Contact name

  Tim Meyer

• Contact email

  t.meyer@ucl.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Joint Research Office, UCL

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 9 days

• Research summary

  Lay summary:
  In this project we are investigating how the immune system responds to neuroendocrine cancer. This study aims to provide a scientific rationale that will lead to clinical trials of immunotherapy in this group of patients.

  Need for project:
  The incidence of NET is increasing and the prevalence is now greater than that of many other tumours of the gastrointestinal tract. The majority of patients present with advanced disease that is not amenable to curative surgery and the only available treatments are aimed at disease control. Recently, immunotherapy has been used in other tumour types to achieve long-term disease control but there is currently no pre-clinical evidence to support trials of immunotherapy in NET.

  Aim of project:
  To identify which immune cells are involved in NET and the pathways involved in controlling these cells. We also aim to investigate how treatment with chemotherapy and the anti-cancer drugs everolimus and sunitinib can affect the immune cells present within these tumours. This will be achieved by taking samples of tumours both before and after treatment with chemotherapy along with peripheral blood samples. We are able to isolate immune cells from the tissue and blood samples and see how these change after treatment. Additionally, we will sequence all the coding DNA of these tumour samples in order to assess if the immune cell infiltrate is linked to particular DNA mutations.

  Patient Benefit:
  Immunotherapy is being explored in many tumour types with encouraging results, but there has been limited investigation of this modality for patients with NET. The data generated from this project will guide a rational approach for combination immunotherapy for patients with NET and improve outcomes for patients.

• REC name

  London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/LO/1567

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Oct 2015

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion